PUTRAJAYA: The company responsible for the incident where 26 Malaysian haj pilgrims were denied entry into Saudi Arabia on Monday may have their operating licence revoked if found guilty for violating regulations.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said the company would be called to provide an explanation on the matter soon.
“If the company was registered with the ministry, we will call the owner to find out how the incident happened.
“If the operating licence was found to have been abused, we will not hesitate to revoke it,” he said at a press conference in his office today.
He said revoking of operating licence would serve as a lesson to other travel and tourism agencies so that pilgrims who want to perform haj or umrah were not victimised.
It was alleged that the company had employed a third party for visa applications which should not have happened, he said.
“When we approved a company licence, we expect them to deal directly with the relevant parties and not for them to hire a third party for the job.
“An incident like this reflects poorly on the company and suggest a failure in their operations,” he said.
It was reported that 26 Malaysians who were believed to have been issued Furada haj visa were denied entry into Saudi Arabia upon their arrival at the King Abdul Aziz International Airport, Jeddah, when Saudi immigration authorities could not find their names in the list of approved haj visa recipients.
The group boarded a commercial flight from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and arrived in Jeddah at 7pm on Monday, They returned home at 11.03am today on Malaysia Airlines flight MH151.