Saudi Arabia allocates domestic pilgrims’ camps

Cairo: Saudi Arabia is set Tuesday to allocate camps for companies taking care of domestic pilgrims as part of preparations for the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage season, a local newspaper has reported.

The camp allocation is related to Mina, around 7km from the holy city of Mecca, where pilgrims perform the symbolic devil-stoning ritual during Hajj.

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah will start Tuesday evening the allocation process by designating sites in the Mina Abraj towers, Okaz said.

The ministry requested managers of the Hajj companies or representatives with powers of attorney to attend.

According to related instructions, failure of a licensed firm to show up at the scheduled allocation phases or refusal to share others in running specific sites will be construed as an apology for not engagement in Hajj services this year, thus having right to claim compensation.

However, the ministry noted that linceses of such no-show companies or evaluation of future performance will not be negatively affected as a result.

Saudi Arabia said last month it would allow 1 million pilgrims from inside and outside the kingdom to perform this year’s Hajj due in July, after restricting the annual ritual to some thousands of Muslims living inside the country for the last two years due to COVID-19 outbreak.

The figure will include around 150,000 pilgrims residing in Saudi Arabia, Saed Al Juhani, the acting head of the Coordination Council for Domestic Pilgrims said earlier this week. He said that three specific packages of services for domestic pilgrims will provided their year.

The open buffet service will also be revived after a suspension of two years due to pandemic-related restrictions, according to the official.

Eligible pilgrims this year must be under 65, fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and present a negative PCR test, Saudi authorities have said.

Around 2.5 million Muslims from around the world used to attend Hajj in Saudi Arabia every year before the pandemic.