JAKARTA: The National Police have named 13 suspects for allegedly organising unauthorised haj trips for this year’s haj season and umrah (minor haj) travels throughout the year, preying on more than 300 potential pilgrims and causing financial losses to victims.
The police’s haj and umrah task force launched investigations after receiving more than a dozen reports from the public, the police said on Tuesday (May 19), without disclosing the identities of the suspects.
“We want to ensure that people can go on their pilgrimage safely through proper procedures,” National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Johnny Eddizon Isir said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We are committed to prevent anyone from exploiting [prospective pilgrims],” he added.
According to Johnny, the 13 suspects had caused around Rp 10 billion (US$566,701) in losses to victims. For this year’s haj, which is expected to take place from May 24 to 29, Indonesia has been allocated a quota of 221,000 pilgrims
Separately, the police assisted the immigration office on Friday in thwarting the departure of 32 Indonesians who attempted to travel to Saudi Arabia for haj without proper visas, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.
The case was first uncovered during random immigration checks, when immigration officers found that the prospective pilgrims were holding a 90-days single-entry work visa, instead of a haj visa, said Muhammad, an investigator from the Haj and Umrah Ministry.
“They were suspected of planning to [travel to Saudi] via China,” Muhammad said in a statement on Saturday. He said that authorities suspected that one of the prospective pilgrims, identified only by the initials EM, was an operational manager of Feigo Travel, the agency organising the trip to China, and that EM acted as the tour leader.
The ministry’s spokesperson Maria Assegaff previously said Saudi authorities had intensified efforts to curb illegal haj activities through layered inspections for the pilgrims at multiple entry points to Mecca.
Pilgrims arriving in Saudi without proper haj visas, she added, could face criminal prosecution, deportation or bans on re-entry to Saudi for up to 10 years. Saudi authorities have detained 19 Indonesians during the 2026 haj season over various violations, from offering and organising unauthorised haj pilgrimages to photographing local women without consent, according to the Haj and Umrah Ministry.
Yusron B. Ambary, Indonesian Consul General in Jeddah, said 15 of the detained Indonesians were being investigated in the Khororoh area and four others in Al-Mansyur, Mecca.
Two detainees have since been granted parole. One of them, a pilgrim accused of filming Saudi women without consent at the Nabawi Mosque in Medina, has been allowed to continue the pilgrimage.
“If there is a complaint from the victim, the legal process will continue and the person concerned may not be able to return to Indonesia according to the schedule,” Yusron said in a statement on May 14. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
