Travellers who were hoping to go on a once in a lifetime trip to the Hajj have spoken of their growing frustrations at a new Saudi-backed portal.

People who were due to head out over the weekend were still in the UK with no answers as whether they are travelling or not.

Others have told of waiting for hours to speak to someone and described the whole situation as "disheartening, stressful and emotionally draining".

Elsewhere, travellers who had paid were then being told their booking had failed and they must wait for a refund just days before they were due to travel.

Pilgrims had booked their flights paying upwards of £9,000 per person to go on the Hajj via the new Motawif website which was launched earlier this month. 

People were meant to be heading out on the annual pilgrimage which is open to British citizens for the first time since 2019.

Many of these are pilgrims who had booked to make the holy journey to Makkah in Saudi Arabia in 2020 before the Covid pandemic. They had been forced to defer their pilgrimage to 2022.

The Hajj is a pilgrimage all Muslims must complete at least once in their lifetime.

The new Saudi website – Motawif - was launched in early June and people were now told to show their ‘interest’ in attending the Hajj. Last weekend potential pilgrims waited for a decision of what has been coined a ‘Hajj lottery’.

Successful travellers were meant to ‘drop everything’ and head out with the Hajj taking place in early July.

This weekend there has been growing discontent at poor customer service, booking failures and a lack of accountability.

Travellers from across Blackburn, Nelson and Preston have been among those affected by the delays.

Eram, from Blackburn, said she had paid £17,000 on June 19 for herself and her son. They were due to travel on Saturday, June 25, from Manchester Airport.

She said: “We paid and booked and were given an itinerary with all the flight times and where we would be staying.

“Then we heard nothing. We tried many times to get in touch and getting through to someone is proving to be real issue. I called 200 times once in a day and then once through you are left on hold.

“I have booked time off work and have yet to receive any confirmation as to when I will be travelling, if at all.”

Eram said this was a "growing problem" and she knew of more than 200 other people who may be in the same situation as her.

“I know of a lot of people who are going through the same ordeal. 

“We have booked and paid and nobody is getting back to us. We get no definite answer.

“One day I started an E-chat at 11am and waited until 5pm for an answer!”

A Nelson couple said they paid £13,700 and were due to fly out on Sunday, June 26.

They said: “We tried contacting them all week leading up to departure date and could not get hold of them at all.

“We managed to get hold of someone on live chat the day before departure and were then told ‘sorry you wouldn’t be travelling as you didn’t book a package with flights'.”

There were particular concerns for families trying to book the Hajj for their parents and family members who were left in ‘limbo’.

Another passenger was saddened the name ‘Motawif’ had been used, saying: “Motawifs have existed from my knowledge even before the declaration of Islam when people used to go to Makkah for pilgrimage. 

“Local families would take people in and serve them. From what I know even until today generations on, families in Makkah are the Motawifs working along side the government to serve the Hajjaj. 

“Unfortunately, the last couple of weeks has given a total different meaning to the name.”

This weekend it was revealed a group of seven passengers from Yorkshire paid a total of £66,500 for the journey and were turned away from Manchester Airport twice after it transpired their flights were fully booked.

A passenger said: “We spent around five hours at the airport as we arrived early and it took us between 60 and 90 minutes to travel there and back.”

Even those who arrived in Saudi Arabia have spoken of being placed in rooms with 'random strangers' and called the situation 'awful'.

One woman posted: “I am down as a Mister and sharing a room with a Miss Mohammed someone. Not the bloke I married! After more than 24 hours travel, no breakfast. This is awful.”

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in the UK and Motawif have been approached for comment.