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mriadi, a 30-year-old resident of Ujungpero village in Wajo, South Sulawesi, said he did not scrutinize PT Aulad Amin Tours a haj travel agency in Makassar, when it said it would fly his wife, Rosdiana, 30, to Mecca without waiting,

He said he had no reason to doubt the travel agency, which promised to take her to Mecca through the Philippines, because last year his relatives went the same way and they all arrived home again safe and sound.

Rosdiana is among the 177 haj pilgrims currently being detained in Manila for using illegally obtained haj passports to go to Mecca. They were arrested at Manila International Airport on Friday after they failed to speak the local language.

Rosidiana registered in January and almost immediately secured a slot to fly in August, a shorter time than waiting for a place in Indonesia’s quota, which takes decades.

“In May, she was brought to the Philippines by Aulad to arrange the haj documents,” said the husband, adding that on Aug. 16 his wife, along with 60 other pilgrims from Wajo, went to Makassar to catch a flight to Jakarta on the following day. From Jakarta the pilgrims flew to the Philippines.

Amriadi said he thought that using a Philippine haj passport was legal. He paid Rp 135 million (US$10,169) for the trip, which was more than the Rp 35 million charged for a regular haj trip by the Indonesian government.

Tahir, 26, a resident of Ajangale subdistrict in Bone regency, also in South Sulawesi, revealed that his father Nurdin Palla had also fallen victim to the Aulad Amin agency and Nurdin is now locked up in the Philippines. Nurdin had the same reasons as Amriadi to trust Aulad.

“My father is already 50 and he was interested in the travel agent’s offer. We did not know if it is illegal,” Tahir said.

South Sulawesi has the longest waiting list for the haj compare to other provinces. Data from the Religious Affairs Ministry shows that people registering for the haj this year will not get their turn until 2055.

Not only travel agencies have been taking advantage of the situation. A middleman from the Philippines, identified as Syekh Rasyidi, also went directly to South Sulawesi to offer unaware residents, especially in Barru regency, a quick way to the holy land through the Philippines.

The Philippines has about 2,000 left-over haj quota places this year. Syndicates in the country work with travel agents and networks in Indonesia to recruit interested and unaware pilgrims.

The National Police had identified seven travel agencies, one of them being Aulad Amin, that brought the 177 people to the Philippines. It remains unclear how many Indonesian had arrived in Mecca using such travel agencies that were not licensed to organize haj trips.

Rasyidi was said to operate his business in Barru. “He only asked people to submit two copies of IDs as the main requirement. The fee was around Rp 110 million and Rp 130 million,” said Barru resident Mahmud.

Rasyidi, who visited Barru three times since last year, offered flexibility to pilgrims, such as by allowing them to pay Rp 50 million in a down payment, while the remainder could be paid after arriving in the Philippines.

“He stayed at my house. He offered people the Philippine package by saying that the country had 8,000 haj quota places, but only 6,000 of them were used. So, there are 2,000 seats left that he said he could offer to local people [in Barru],” Mahmud said.

Last year, Rasyidi flew 20 people to Mecca via the Philippines. Dozens of the detained 177 pilgrims were recruited by Rasyidi.

Following the Manila arrest, the Religious Affairs Ministry launched an audit to find out whether 269 haj travel agents and 693 umrah (minor haj) travel agents also bought quota places from the Philippines.

The National Police sent a team to Manila to collect testimony from the 177 pilgrims in its investigation into the seven unlicensed travel agents over possible fraud.

— Margareth S. Aritonang contributed to the article from Jakarta