Pilgrims walk around the Kaaba, a holy shrine at the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, March 6, 2022. AMR NABIL/AP
After a two-year suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Saudi authorities have reopened the kingdom’s doors to foreign Muslims for the Great Pilgrimage to Mecca, which will take place from July 7-12 this year. But less than a month into the event, a new procedure for obtaining visas, introduced by the host country, is causing confusion and bewilderment among exit candidates and French actors who can perform this ritual requirement must do it once in their lifetime. It disrupts the normal operation – which is quite opaque – of the Hajj market (also called the “great pilgrimage”). Already weakened by two years of health-related food shortages, some of France’s specialist travel agencies fear going out of business.
In fact, as revealed by information site SaphirNews, the Saudi Hajj Ministry announced on Monday, June 6, that the candidates for the great pilgrimage, which will take place in Europe, America and Australia (in Muslim countries, regulation is up to the authorities). necessarily take place through a single digital platform, Motawif.
Also read: Covid-19: Saudi Arabia authorizes the presence of one million pilgrims in Mecca
After a week of uncertainty, online registrations opened for three days on Friday evening, June 10th. To apply you must be under 65 and have a full vaccination schedule against Covid-19. Starting Tuesday, June 14, a draw will be drawn to determine who is eligible for a visa among those registered. With around 9,200 for France this year, places are tighter than before the pandemic, when the number of visas issued fluctuated between 22,000 and 25,000.
black market
This is a change in logic. Hitherto, visas have been issued by the Saudi authorities through travel agencies provided they had obtained a permit, which can be renewed each year by the Saudi authorities. These visas were unequally distributed. Three or four big agencies got several thousand, the others a lot less. Some also gave some back to subcontractors and nurtured a shadow economy.
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But travel agencies do not wait for permits and visas to make deposits and book the services included in the package sold to customers, namely plane tickets to Jeddah, hotel accommodation in Mecca and Medina, places in the tents of Mina, where pilgrims three spend or four nights and bus transport between the hotels and the various pilgrimage sites. To cover these costs, agencies therefore ask clients for an advance payment, which is often brought to them (for a commission) by “thugs”. Hoping to get visas.
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