A new procedure for obtaining visas for those wishing to go on the great pilgrimage to Mecca could put many Western travel agencies in the lurch and prevent thousands of French pilgrims from fulfilling the fifth pillar of Islam. However, some observers welcome a move aimed at ending the abuses that plague the Hajj business.
There is a small revolution in the organization of the Mecca pilgrimage. After two editions prohibited to foreigners due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Hajj 2022 (the great pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca) will take place from July 7 to July 12 with a new visa application system for believers originating from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia.
In the hope of achieving the fifth pillar of Islam, Muslims living in those Western countries have gone this year through the Motawif digital platform, the only one authorized to issue Hajj visas by lottery. Candidates had to meet two conditions to validate their registration: be vaccinated against Covid-19 and be under 65 years of age.
The latest results of this visa lottery are expected this Saturday, June 18, and thousands of French Muslims fear missing out on the pilgrimage this summer, because there will not be room for everyone: for example, the 2022 quota for French pilgrims has been set at 9,200, compared to the usual 20,000.
Travel agencies out of the game
Until now, the authorities of the Wahhabi kingdom, the conservative current of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia, have granted visas through private travel agencies.
The Coordination of Authorized Hajj Organizers of France (CHF), which brings together 70 societies, expressed in a statement at the beginning of June its “misunderstanding of this disturbing management and that it carries very important risks in terms of the proper development of the pilgrimage from France”.
“The agencies are in a phase in which they can no longer project themselves. Several of them are starting from almost bankrupt situations,” explains an official quoted by ‘SaphirNews’, a site specializing in current affairs in the Muslim world.
However, the Saudi initiative is not a total surprise for the agencies. “This pilgrimage reform has been in preparation for several years, but the agencies did not expect such a sudden decision, and especially not at the last minute,” explains Leïla Seurat, associate researcher at the Observatory of the Arab and Muslim Worlds (Omam). and author of a study on the pilgrimage market in Mecca.
Scams in Mecca
According to a Saudi source quoted by the AFP agency, this new visa granting system is intended to combat scams by “false agencies” that take money from pilgrims.
Scams and deceptive commercial practices that have been denounced in France, since 2015, by Omar Dakir, president of the Cultural Association of Mutual Aid and Fraternity (Acef). He cites as an example “unregistered agencies that sell packages at exorbitant prices and obtain visas with the complicity of authorized agencies.”
According to Dakir, the new system put in place by the Saudi authorities is “excellent news” to clean up this Hajj business. “For years, French citizens of the Muslim confession have been detained in planes and hotels, without financial guarantees or legal protection. It is endangering the lives of others,” estimates Omar Dakir.
“And the Saudis normalize and make the system much more transparent, while a lot of money was circulating on the black market,” says Didier Leschi, former head of the central office of cults of the French Ministry of the Interior, on the religious news site La Croix Africa.
As for the price, there are three packages available for Muslims residing in the western area, ranging between 6,200 and 9,900 euros for stays of approximately three weeks.
Economic recovery
By cutting out middlemen, the Saudi kingdom is also seeking to maximize the colossal revenue generated from religious tourism, as well as diversify its economy.
Before the pandemic, the two main Muslim pilgrimages, the Hajj and the Umrah (a pilgrimage at any time of the year), brought Saudi Arabia some 12 billion dollars (10.2 billion euros) a year.
“Saudi Arabia wants to regain control of this market in order to benefit directly from exchanges with pilgrims. This reform is part of the Vision 2030 plan, which aims to develop tourism in order to prepare for post-oil,” Leïla analyzes Seurat del Omam.
It remains to be seen whether the Saudis will be able to replace Western agencies so easily, when there are many questions about the new organization and the accompaniment that the faithful will benefit from. “Western agencies play on people’s fear by saying that there will be no guides in the place, but that is completely false,” replied Omar Dakir, president of Acef.
“There will no longer be cohesion within groups of French pilgrims traveling together,” Leïla Seurat points out. “The camps, where the pilgrims sleep in Mina after Mecca, were organized according to nationality. It’s hard to know how they will do it this year. It could be a big problem.”
For this 2022 edition, Saudi Arabia authorized the arrival of one million pilgrims between foreigners and nationals, against 2.5 million before the Covid-19 pandemic.
*Adapted from its original French version
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