Jakarta. Indonesia is nudging Saudi Arabia into letting the Southeast Asian country send more Hajj officials this pilgrimage season.

About 221,000 Indonesians are set to go on Hajj -- a major pilgrimage that a Muslim has to perform at least once in their lifetime -- this year. Saudi Arabia has also allowed the world’s largest Muslim-majority country Indonesia to send 2,210 Hajj officers. However, this is only half of the officer quota that Indonesia had last year.

Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar is currently in talks with Saudi Hajj Minister Tawfiq Al Rabiah so Indonesia can deploy more officers. For context, an officer is in charge of assisting the pilgrims during the pilgrimage. Their presence is vital considering how the elderly make up a large part of Indonesian pilgrims.

“With the current quota, we would only be able to assign 3 officers to take care of each flight group. And a plane can carry between 300 and 400 pilgrims. Of course, it would be difficult,” Nasaruddin said in Jakarta on Wednesday, as reported by the state news agency Antara.

The lack of officers amidst the high number of elderly pilgrims could become a major challenge. The ministry’s data shows that there are over 42,000 pilgrims who are older than 65 who may go to Hajj this year. Indonesia plans to allow 10,000 more elderly to go on Hajj in 2025.

“We also need to take into account the distribution of the officers based on their gender. It is impossible for a male officer to accompany a female pilgrim and vice versa,” Nasaruddin said. 

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