No limit on number and age of pilgrims
Conditions: No restrictions will be in place this year. Mecca will welcome as many people as before the health crisis.
Good news for pilgrims. Saudi Arabia is lifting all restrictions that had been imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Conditions for the pilgrimage to Mecca return to normal. Saudi Hajj Minister Toufic al Rabiha has announced that there will be no limits on the number of pilgrims. “The number of pilgrims will return to what it was before the pandemic, without any age limit,” he said at a press conference in Riyadh. Thus, the age limit was lifted while during the 3 years of restrictions, you had to be between 18 and 65 years old.
Indeed, the person authorized to perform the pilgrimage previously had to be under the age of 65, provided that they were born in August or the following months of the year 1957. Pilgrims were subject to other restrictions, including the fact of having received the three doses of the anti-Covid vaccine and presenting a negative result of the PCR test for a sample taken within 72 hours before departure for the pilgrimage. The other big news announced by the Saudi authorities is that women will no longer need a Mahram (accompanying person) to perform Hajj or Umrah.
In other words, they are no longer obliged to be accompanied by their husband, their brother, their father or their son. Insurance costs for Hajj pilgrims will be reduced by 73% and 63% for Umrah pilgrims. With regard to Umrah, the Minister specified that from now on the visa can be withdrawn in less than 24 hours and will be valid for 90 days instead of 30. It will allow visitors to travel to any city in the country. In addition, the Saudi Minister of Hajj said that in 2022, nearly 900,000 people, including 780,000 randomly selected foreigners, were welcomed to Mecca, provided they were under the age of 65, vaccinated and present a negative PCR test. In 2021, only 60,000 residents of the country were allowed to make the great pilgrimage. Before the health crisis, this annual meeting brought together 2.5 million Muslims in 2019, before dropping to a thousand in 2020.
Last year, the quota of Moroccan pilgrims was 45% of the normal quota, or 15,392 pilgrims, including 10,186 supervised by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs and 5,206 by tourist travel agencies. Moroccan pilgrims within the limit of the percentage mentioned had been taken from among those selected for the 2019 draw. Recall that last year, the fees for pilgrims supervised by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs had been set at 63,800 DH , pocket money not included. During the 201 season, the costs amounted to 49,906 DH.
