Lebanon – The monetary disaster that Lebanon has been experiencing for five years, and its severity has worsened since final yr, has turned the Hajj ritual into an unattainable dream for a lot of Lebanese who want to carry out the Hajj, together with the vast majority of Palestinian refugees there.
The top of the Hajj and Umrah Affairs Authority, Decide Muhammad Al-Makkawi, says that the financial disaster that Lebanon has been affected by for years. It tremendously affected the Hajj season this yr.
In an interview with Anadolu, Makkawi defined that the turnout for the Hajj season this yr didn’t exceed the quota allotted to Lebanon, which is 7,500 pilgrims, distributed by 6,000 Lebanese pilgrims and 1,500 for Palestinian refugees.
The United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimates that 45 p.c of Palestine refugees dwell in 12 overcrowded refugee camps in Lebanon, and regarding 200,000 Palestinian refugees yearly obtain the company’s providers in Lebanon.
In line with the company, poverty charges amongst Palestine refugees are excessive, as they report that 80 p.c of them dwell under the poverty line.
Delegations of pilgrims set off for the Holy Lands in Saudi Arabia in the midst of this week, to carry out Hajj rituals by way of Rafic Hariri Worldwide Airport to Jeddah and Medina airports.
In line with a supply involved with Hajj and Umrah corporations, the price of one pilgrim this yr begins at $4,500 and will increase in response to the extent of lodging and extra providers.
** Financial disaster
Lebanon has been affected by a serious financial collapse for five years, with a lot of the inhabitants now under the poverty line, in response to the World Financial institution.
The implications of the unprecedented financial disaster had been mirrored within the nation’s numerous sectors, together with the development sector and dilapidated infrastructure.
Makkawi identified, “We seen a decline within the demand for Hajj this yr amongst Palestinian refugees, as solely 632 pilgrims submitted their software out of the quota allotted to them, which is 1,500 visas.”
“So as to not lose this variety of Hajj visas, we requested the Saudi authorities to switch the rest of the quota allotted to the Palestinians by transferring it to Lebanese pilgrims who weren’t beforehand lucky sufficient to be included within the Lebanese quota.”
Makkawi stated that the rationale behind the decline in Hajj requests amongst Palestinians is as a result of monetary state of affairs… “as a result of they’re most affected by the financial disaster that Lebanon has been affected by for years, along with the excessive prices of Hajj and a few Lebanese additionally affected by the identical state of affairs.”
“There are 38 non-public corporations in Lebanon that meet the situations for sponsoring pilgrims, and they’re supervised by the Hajj and Umrah Affairs Authority. 34 corporations are designated for Lebanese pilgrims and 4 for Palestinian pilgrims.”
He added: “We labored in file time to arrange this yr’s Hajj season to achieve success. We handled extremely certified Saudi corporations in serving pilgrims.”
He identified that the Hajj Authority in Lebanon labored to arrange the Hajj, ranging from Rafic Hariri Worldwide Airport in Beirut, to Jeddah and Medina airports, in coordination with service workplaces in Saudi Arabia to obtain pilgrims to and from the airport.
He careworn that the Lebanese Authority was eager this yr that the providers throughout the Hajj rituals on Mount Arafat might be snug for pilgrims, “along with logistical issues, and we additionally labored on lodging services in Mina.”
In early July 2023, Saudi Arabia introduced the beginning of procedures for the primary early group of Hajj within the historical past of the Kingdom, to start with the Hajj season of 1445 AH (2024), noting that it had delivered paperwork concerning this to the nations involved.
At the moment, the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah stated, via its account on the “X” platform, that throughout the framework of the early Hajj, the arrival of pilgrims to the Kingdom will start on Could 9, 2024.
It’s noteworthy that greater than 1.8 million pilgrims from greater than 150 nations carried out Hajj in 2023, which witnessed an entire return of pilgrims for the reason that emergence of the Corona pandemic in late 2019.
The variety of pilgrims throughout the yr 2022 reached 899,353, whereas the 2021 season was restricted to the participation of solely 60,000 from throughout the Kingdom, and the yr 2020 witnessed solely regarding 10,000 from inside Saudi Arabia, in comparison with regarding 2.5 million in 2019 from all around the world.
Anatolia
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2024-06-09 09:34:34