700 THAI HAJ PILGRIMS STRANDED IN PENANG BY D ARUL RAJOO

BANGKOK, Nov 11 (Bernama)-- About 700 Thai Muslim pilgrims have been
stranded in northern Penang-state in Peninsular Malaysia, for the past one week
after a Malaysian airline company that was supposed to fly them to Saudi Arabia
failed to arrange their flights.

Areepen Uttasin, a member of parliament from Narathiwat, said the
pilgrims,
mostly from the southern provinces of Pattani and Narathiwat, paid about 140,000
baht (RM14,000) each to the airline to manage their trip to Mecca together with
a Saudi partner.

He said they were supposed to leave for Mecca on Nov 4 but the planes that
were supposed to be provided by the airline's Saudi counterpart failed to arrive
in Penang as scheduled.

"This is really disturbing as I don't understand why they collected money
but are unable to provide the service," he said when contacted here.

According to Areepen, who met the pilgrims in Penang few days ago, the
Malaysian company representatives promised that arrangement had been made to fly
them to Mecca on Thursday.


At the moment, all the pilgrims are housed at the Tabung Haji Complex on
the island and the company is paying about RM20,000 a day for food and
accommodation, he said.

"I hope they will keep to their promise to send them by Thursday.
Otherwise, there will be more problems as Mecca-bound Malaysian pilgrims are
expected to move into the complex on Nov 19," he said.

Areepen said while waiting for the company to take the necessary steps, he
was liasing with Thai Foreign Ministry officials and Thai International Airways
to make alternative arrangements.

"I am going to raise this matter in Parliament Wednesday. If the company
cannot keep to its promise to send them by Thursday, we will ask them to refund
the pilgrims' money and try to send them from Thailand," he added.

Areepen said Saudi Arabia had a 14,000 pilgrim quota for Thailand and most
of the Mecca-bound Thais are flying from the Bangkok, Phuket and Hatyai
international airports.

-- BERNAMA