Hundreds of Nigerian pilgrims who participated in the 2024 Hajj under registered tour operators were abandoned by tour operators at the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Dateline can report.
The Nigerian pilgrims, numbering about 400, were said to be scheduled to return to the country on Saturday, June 22 via flight Number 6112 at 23:59 hours. Aero Contractors was said to be the airline engaged by the tour operators for the flight.
Trouble started for the returning pilgrims who separately arrived at the airport between 7.pm and 8.pm only to discover that the there was no scheduled flight with Number 6112.
The pilgrims were further thrown into commotion when they could not ascertain the right terminal for take off despite efforts to reach their individual tour operators for the appropriate information.
Despite their plight, it was learnt, the tour operators who are responsible for the pilgrims return, were nowhere to be found around the airport even as the pilgrims made frantic efforts to reach them but most of them were said to have switched off their phones.
This is even as some of the returning pilgrims were hopeless after securing return tickets, but could not have access to their international passports, earlier seized by their agents in Makkah.
Based on new rules by the Saudi authorities, any pilgrim found in the airport without a ticket would be returned to Makkah and the agent under whose company the pilgrim secured visa would be fined some thousands of Saudi Riyals.
It was as a result of the above policy that the agents quickly seize pilgrims passports on arrival in Makkah to avoid in pilgrim going to the Jeddah airport without first securing a ticket.
Dateline Nigeria gathered that some pilgrims had to pass the night at the Jeddah airport as they could not unravel the true situation of their flight.
One of the affected pilgrims told Dateline Nigeria that the Flight Number 6112 was later changed to Number 2136. It was rescheduled to take off on Sunday morning at about 8.am but the pilgrims later saw on the notice board that the flight was for 10.am.
At about 9.am on Sunday, some of the pilgrims on ground were later lucky to secure boarding pass through the efforts of an official of the Nigerian embassy in Saudi.
They checked in at about 10.am but could not board as a large chunk of the pilgrims billed to travel with the flight could not get their passports back from their agents.
It was not clear when the flight will take off as of 3.10.pm when this report was filed on Sunday.
