While the nation endlessly discusses the First Travel Ponzi scheme scandal, another Umrah pilgrimage scandal is brewing, this time involving another travel agency.
Today, several tour agents reported PT Azizi Tour and Travel to the National Police’s Crime Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) accusing the travel agency of failing to fly at least 1,200 of their customers to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah pilgrimage despite having been paid in full.
“The worshippers were supposed to travel November-December 2016. From early 2015 people began registering (for Azizi’s services), and people from some regions began registering in early 2016, but they haven’t left (for pilgrimage) to this day. We have so far collected around 1,200 customers, but we estimate that there are actually more than 2,000 in total,” said one of the complainants, Asep Sarul Alamsyah, as quoted by Kumparan today.
Unlike First Travel, which offered Umrah packages at unrealistically low prices (which led to the Ponzi scheme in which the agency sent their first customers to Saudi using money gained from subsequent customers), Asep said Azizi’s Umrah packages, which cost about Rp20 million ($1,500) per person, were in line with the Religious Affairs Ministry’s recommendation.
Azizi initially flew some of its customers to Saudi, but they stopped fulfilling their legal obligations to other customers towards the end of 2016.
By then, customers and agents had a hard time contacting Azizi’s first director, Hajah Nasla Lubis. When they did, she claimed that the company was defrauded by their partner in Malaysia, and that she was going to go to the neighboring country to sort out the issue.
“She said she was duped by a partner in Malaysia, so she went to Malaysia. That was our last communication. She just disappeared. So we had to communicate to her financial staff in their Medan office, but that office is now shut,” said another travel agent, Khairul Imam, as quoted by Tirto today.
Aside from First Travel and Azizi, Indonesia has seen several other cases of fraudulent travel agencies in the past, leaving many people’s dreams of going on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca end in tatters.
