Saudi Arabia wants to centralize visa applications for Westerners for the hajj
Pilgrims around the Kaaba at the Grand Mosque in Mecca in September 2015 (Illustrative image).
REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
It is an upheaval in the organization of the hajj, the great pilgrimage to Mecca which will take place from July 7 to July 12, 2022. Candidates from Europe, the United States and Australia must now go through a internet platform set up by Saudi Arabia, instead of the usual travel agencies from this Wednesday, June 15.
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Motawif is
the new internet platform
set up by Saudi Arabia.
It allows pilgrims from Western countries to register and apply for a visa for Mecca.
But there is a risk of unpleasant surprises, because the pilgrims are drawn by lot.
And the quotas for France, for example, are reduced, explains Leila Seurat, a researcher specializing in the Muslim world, author of a study on the pilgrimage market in Mecca: "
In France, we have 9,000 pilgrims who leave this year for the 20,000 that are traditionally attributed to France.
So we're halfway there.
It's related to the Covid pandemic.
They will be drawn by lot to obtain the visa, which creates a form of injustice.
»
Abuses in some agencies
Before the platform was set up, French pilgrims contacted specialized travel agencies to organize their trip to Mecca, for several thousand euros.
Today, these agencies find themselves sidelined.
Saudi Arabia no doubt wanted to clean up within an opaque system, believes Leila Seurat: “
It is true that there have been a lot of excesses on the part of directors of agencies who circulated visas , in the sense that there was a black trade in visas, that the services on site were not at all those purchased.
So there is a whole series of deviations in this market which are true, but which should not be overestimated either.
»
With the new system put in place by Saudi Arabia, the authorities hope to better control the great pilgrimage to Mecca and its financial windfall.
►Also read: African pilgrims prepare to resume pilgrimage to Mecca, despite rising costs
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