T

he Religious Affairs Ministry said Wednesday it would impose a total fine of US$2 million on nine hotel associations in Saudi Arabia for stranding 17,240 Indonesian pilgrims in Medina.

The hotel associations were found to be in breach of contracts that required them to house pilgrims from Indonesia in the vicinity of several holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

This year, 155,200 Indonesians went on the haj, fewer than the 168,000 pilgrims in 2013, data from the ministry said. Each pilgrim had to pay around $3,200 to take the trip to the Holy Land this year.

'€œIt was stated in the contracts that the 10 hotel associations arranging housing for Indonesian pilgrims would place pilgrims in hotels no further than 650 meters from Nabawi Mosque in Medina. Nine of the associations breached their contract by placing pilgrims in hotels around 1 to 2 kilometers from the mosque,'€ Religious Affairs Ministry inspector general M. Jasin said Wednesday.

As a consequence, the ministry could collect 300 riyal ($80), or around Rp 953,200, from the nine associations for every pilgrim housed outside the 650-m limit.

'€œWe will collect 300 riyal for every one of the 17,240 pilgrims. The total fine will be around Rp 15.6 billion. We hope that it will be paid by the end of this year'€™s haj program. Then we will give back the money to the pilgrims affected by the violation,'€ Jasin said.

'€œThis kind of violation occurs almost every year, but we have always failed to impose the fine on the hotel associations. But this year, we are going to be very strict. We will make sure that we can collect the whole fine from them,'€ Jasin said.

He further said that next year the Religious Affairs Ministry would no longer use the services of hotels under these associations, which control the majority of hotels in Medina.

'€œNext year we will sign contracts with individual hotels without using a go-between. We want a total change next year because we want to improve the haj services for pilgrims,'€ Jasin said.

He said that there could be more pilgrims housed in hotels distant from Nabawi mosque.

The figure of 17,240 pilgrims was recorded on Sept. 15.

The ministry is currently improving the haj system after it was hit by a graft scandal which saw then religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali named a suspect in a graft case.

Suryadharma was accused of illegally flying dozens of people, including his relatives, to Saudi Arabia using money paid by regular haj pilgrims.

Earlier in August, the ministry also announced that it had saved as much as Rp 141 billion from renegotiation of the contract for pilgrim housing in Mecca and Medina for this year'€™s haj season.

'€œIn Mecca, we saved around 32 million riyal, or around Rp 100 billion, while in Medina it was around Rp 41 billion. The savings will be put in the Public Trust Fund [DAU],'€ said Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, who has replaced Suryadharma.

Besides the DAU, the ministry also manages the haj fund, a scheme that requires individual haj pilgrims to pay a deposit of Rp 25 million to be placed on a waiting list to make the trip.