The annual pilgrimage of Hajj will be held this year on October 14, subject to the sighting of the moon. However, the visa processing of 87,689 pilgrims have not even started yet.
Only the 1,490 pilgrims who are going under government supervision have gotten their visas from the Saudi embassy in Dhaka. The other 87,689 pilgrims, who are expecting to perform Hajj with the help of 626 private hajj agencies, are yet to get their visas.
Agencies are saying Bangladesh Biman’s delay in declaring the Hajj flight schedules has caused this dilemma.
One of the preconditions for a pilgrim travelling with an agency to get Hajj visa from the Saudi embassy is that the agency must submit documents showing they had rented a place for the pilgrim in Makkah or Madina. Most of the private agencies have not yet submitted any papers to the religious affairs ministry.
State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Shahajan Mia in a meeting on Hajj management on August 14 announced that the first flight of Hajj pilgrims will start on September 7.
MA Rashid Shah Samrat, former general secretary of Hajj Agencies of Bangladesh (Hab), told the Dhaka Tribune that Biman Bangladesh Airlines was supposed to declare Hajj flight schedules in July but they had not done so yet.
“As the agencies do not yet know the flight schedule, they cannot rent houses,” he said. Last year many agencies had incurred unnecessary costs because of the same problem, he alleged.
Many pilgrims are concerned that their paperwork will not be completed in time.
Moreover, the Saudi government’s warning about health criteria for the pilgrims due to recent outbreaks of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV) has raised concerns among pilgrims.
Health Ministry of Saudi Arabia has urged that the elderly, pregnant women, children and those with chronic diseases should postpone Umrah and Hajj this year. Those aged above 65 and below 12 years have been advised not to perform Hajj.
Religious Affairs Secretary Kazi Habibul Awal told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday that they did not receive any official letter from the Saudi government about the age limit.
“Usually they [Saudi government] discourage the elderly and the children to come to perform Hajj because to perform Hajj properly, physical fitness is very important. Moreover they are more cautious this year because of the MARS-COV attacks which killed 38 people,” he said.
Awal hoped that Bangladeshi pilgrims will not have to face any problems to get Hajj visas.
“We have requested the health ministry to do proper health check-ups on each pilgrim and issue medical certificates. Now the people are also conscious about their age limit and the number of elderly pilgrims is decreasing day by day,” he added.
When asked about the slow progress of visa processing, the secretary said Hab leaders had informed him they had almost completed renting houses for the pilgrims.
“They told me they will submit all necessary documents to the religious affairs ministry soon. Within a week pilgrims with private agencies will start getting visas,” he said.
This year, fewer Bangladeshi pilgrims are going for Hajj. Ministry reports said a total of 89,179 people have registered with the government and private agencies for Hajj. Last year there were 105,617 hajis, 16,438 more than this year.
