Saudi Lets Indonesia Send 221,000 Hajj Pilgrims This Year
Jakarta. The Saudi Arabian government has greenlit a Hajj quota of 221,000 people for the world’s largest Muslim-majority country Indonesia this pilgrimage season.
Hajj is a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s Mecca which every adult Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime. Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar alongside Saudi Hajj Minister Tawfiq al Rabiah recently inked a memorandum of understanding that made the 221,000 individuals haj quota official.
“This deal agrees that Indonesia gets to send 221,000 pilgrims in the 2025 haj season,” Nasaruddin said over the weekend.
About 110,500 Indonesian Hajj pilgrims will arrive in Saudi Arabia via Medina’s Prince Mohammad bin Abdulaziz International Airport. They will return home via Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport. The remaining pilgrims will take on the opposite, meaning that they will first arrive in the Jeddah Airport and fly back home from Medina.
The deal states that the Saudi government has the right to change the quota of Hajj officers, namely the people who assist the pilgrims during their activities. Any upgrades to the officer quota will take place in line with the contract based on the agreed schedule, according to the ministerial press release. Indonesia gets to send 2,210 officers or about 1 percent of its pilgrims quota. According to Nasaruddin, Indonesia is currently nudging the Saudi authorities to let the country send more Hajj officers.
“The more officers we have, we will be able to further give the best we can to our haj pilgrims,” Nasaruddin said.
President Prabowo Subianto will visit Saudi later this month to lobby for a higher Hajj quota. Last year, Indonesia had a record-breaking haj quota of 241,000 pilgrims.
The government recently reduced the proposed Hajj cost for the 2025 pilgrimage season to Rp 89.7 million (around $5,497) per person, down from Rp 93.4 million. Under the revised scheme, a pilgrim will have to pay around Rp 55.4 million, or about 62 percent of the total costs. The government will take care of the remaining payment.
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