“Walking on the road to death”: facilities “burdened by irregular Hajj”

The number of deaths during this year’s Hajj season exceeded more than 1,100 people, the majority of whom died due to… Heat stress.

The number of deaths reached 1,126 people, more than half of whom were from Egypt, according to a tally collected by Agence France-Presse from the authorities of the concerned countries and diplomats on Friday, while a tally published by the newspaper indicated Wall Street Journal To the death of 1170 people.

658 Egyptians died during the Hajj, 630 of whom were unregistered, according to what Arab diplomats reported to Agence France-Presse.

Before the start of this year’s Hajj season, the Saudi authorities announced that they had deported from Mecca more than 300,000 people who were not registered to perform the Hajj.

Every year, Saudi Arabia issues official permits through a quota system allocated to various countries, which are distributed to individuals by lottery.

Why do some people not register for Hajj officially?

One of the agents organizing trips for Egyptians tells a newspaper The New York Times “Due to the increase in fees for Hajj flights and the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, many pilgrims chose to obtain a tourist visa.”

The tour agent, who spoke from Mecca on condition of anonymity, added that this matter “burdened the burden on service facilities in Mecca and the holy places surrounding it.”

He described the conditions that unregistered pilgrims live in as “harsh,” as they spend their days without “tents and are exposed to intense heat,” not to mention their limited use of buses, with some of them walking nearly 20 kilometers “in order to complete the rituals.”

Irregular pilgrims cannot use the amenities provided to facilitate the performance of rituals, such as air-conditioned tents that protect them from the heat, with temperatures rising to 51.8 degrees Celsius in the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims perform the Hajj without permits due to the possibility of not being accepted, as there is a specific quota for each country, and the high costs of reservations.

The high costs of the official Hajj trip tempt even those who can obtain an official permit to resort to the unofficial route in order to save a few thousand dollars, according to Agence France-Presse.

This has become especially available since 2019 when Saudi Arabia began issuing general tourist visas, which facilitated travel to the Kingdom.

Failure to register for Hajj deprives them of access to the air-conditioned spaces provided by the Saudi authorities for 1.8 million pilgrims who hold permits.

Hind Hassan, from Egypt, told the newspaper that her aunt, Safaa Tawab (55 years old), died during Hajj, and the tourism company that arranged the trip hid the news from them until the family discovered her name on the list of the deceased published online.

It caused the death of hundreds of pilgrims.. What is “heat stress”?

At least 550 pilgrims died during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, due to reasons related to high temperature and heat stress. What is this situation? How could it be “fatal”?

One of the friends who accompanied Hajja Safaa told her family that the Hajj journey was like “walking on the road to death due to the heat and lack of water.”

Egyptian Member of Parliament, Mahmoud Qassem, blamed “suspicious” tour operators, which exposed Egyptian pilgrims to “deception and fraud,” calling for an official investigation to be opened.

In an official statement, the Egyptian authorities announced the formation of a crisis cell, as efforts to search for missing Egyptian citizens will be intensified, and the companies that facilitated the travel of unregistered pilgrims will be held accountable.

Irregular Egyptian pilgrims told AFP this week that they faced difficulties in entering hospitals or calling ambulances for their loved ones, and some of them died.

Witnesses tell how some pilgrims collapsed due to the heat

After years of trying in vain to obtain a Hajj visa, Yasser decided to go to Mecca and perform the Hajj without an official permit, which he regretted.

They were unable to use official Hajj buses, the only means of transportation around the holy sites, without unofficially paying exorbitant fees.

After they had to walk several kilometers under the blazing sun, some reported seeing corpses on the side of the road and pilgrims collapsing due to obvious exhaustion.

Hajj is witnessing many tragedies, according to the newspaper, including the stampede that occurred in 2015 and claimed the lives of more than 2,200 people. In recent years, high temperatures have caused pilgrims to be exposed to heat stress.

Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is increasingly affected by climate change, according to a Saudi study that reported that the temperature in the region is rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade.

A Saudi official comments

A senior Saudi official defended his country’s management of the Hajj rituals on Friday after various countries announced deaths this year, while performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, and he attributed many of the deaths to the extreme heat.

The official told Agence France-Presse in the first official comment on the deaths of pilgrims, “The state did not fall short, but there was a misjudgment on the part of people who did not appreciate the risks that would happen to them.”

According to the official, this happened “in difficult weather conditions and extremely harsh temperatures,” acknowledging that the number does not include the entire Hajj season, which officially ended on Wednesday.

The Saudi official added, “We estimate the number of irregular pilgrims at about 400,000 people, the vast majority of whom are of one nationality,” referring to Egypt.

The Saudi official denied preventing irregular pilgrims from using buses, and said: “There is no prohibition against (irregular pilgrims) using buses, but these buses are prepared in advance for regular pilgrims who we know are coming.”

He pointed out that irregular pilgrims “walk on bus routes that are not equipped with services, whether food or medical, such as ambulances. This is a highway designated for buses, not pedestrians.”

According to the Saudi authorities, 1.8 million pilgrims performed the rituals this year, a number similar to the number recorded last year, 1.6 million of whom came from outside the Kingdom.

The Jordanian authorities announced on Friday that the number of Jordanian pilgrims who died as a result of exposure to heat stroke due to the intense heat wave had risen to 75, while a number of organizers of irregular Hajj trips were arrested.

On Friday, Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the Minister of Religious Affairs following the death of 49 pilgrims during the Hajj this year.

On Friday, a US State Department spokesman said that “several” American citizens had died during the Hajj.

The spokesman said in a statement, “We can confirm the death of several American citizens in Saudi Arabia,” without giving further details.