Source: newsthemegh.com
Ben Abdallah Banda, the chairman of the Ghana Hajj Board, has warned aspiring Ghanaian Muslims to be wary of con artists who promise to provide Hajj services in exchange for tourist visas to gullible pilgrims.
Additionally, the Chairman issued a warning that anyone with a tourist visa or a Hajj visa who did not make payment through the Hajj Board or its authorized agents and who intends to use Ghana’s facilities in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj should abandon their plans immediately because they risk being caught.
The head of the Ghana Hajj Board warned that some people intentionally or unintentionally try to perform the Hajj using tourist visas rather than the required Hajj Visa, adding that offenders may face legal action. The Saudi Arabian authorities have stated that they will be extremely strict in applying the law.
I wish to warn my brothers and sisters who might have paid money to fictitious agents who could only obtain them tourist visas rather than Hajj visas.
You cannot undertake the Hajj while on a tourist visa, and if you do, you risk being detained, prosecuted, imprisoned, expelled, and potentially facing a lengthy entry ban into Saudi Arabia, Ben Abdallah Banda warned.
“There are also those with the same tourist visas who did not pay to the Hajj Board or our accredited agents, but they will also appear at our camp in Saudi Arabia and attempt to use our facilities since they are also Ghanaians,” he continued. Again, I want to warn those who intend to do so to stop in order to avoid any inconvenience and shame since we will not accept such.
Regarding the preparations for this year’s Hajj, Chairman Abdallah Banda announced that the first group of Ghanaian pilgrims will leave Tamale for Saudi Arabia today, Friday, June 9. He also said that the airlifting of pilgrims from the country’s northern sector would continue until June 16, when it would start airlifting pilgrims from the southern sector.
A maximum of 6,000 Ghanaian pilgrims are anticipated to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj in 2023, the first time the Saudi government will permit a Hajj at full capacity since the Covid-19 global pandemic outbreak in 2019.