Global outrage over Hajj disaster

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has ordered 16 tourism companies stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the Public Prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Mecca. And Tunisian President Kais Saied has fired the Minister of Religious Affairs over the carnage. Legalbrief reports that at least 1 301 people – including many Africans – died during Hajj, mostly unauthorised pilgrims who walked long distances in intense heat. About 1.8m people took part this year, the Saudi Arabian authorities confirmed. Health Minister Fahd Al-Jalajel said efforts had been made to raise awareness about the dangers of heat stress and how pilgrims could mitigate this. Health facilities treated nearly half a million pilgrims, including more than 140 000 who did not have a permit, and some are still in hospital for heat exhaustion. Indonesia India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa and Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region have also confirmed deaths.

The hottest recorded temperature reported in the Grand Mosque of Mecca was 51.8°C a week ago, according to the national meteorological centre. BBC News reports that Arab diplomats said Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of them unregistered pilgrims. ‘The Prime Minister has ordered the licences of these companies to be revoked, their managers to be referred to the Public Prosecutor and the imposition of a fine to benefit the families of the pilgrims who died because of them,’ the Egyptian Cabinet said in a statement. It said the rise in the deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims stemmed from some companies which ‘organised the Hajj programmes using a personal visit visa, which prevents its holders from entering Mecca’ through official channels.

Full BBC News report

Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals through a lottery. Even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many pilgrims to attempt the Hajj without a permit, although they risk arrest and deportation if caught by Saudi security forces. The Sunday Tribune reports that the irregular route, which can save pilgrims thousands of dollars, has become popular since 2019 when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa which has made it easier to enter the Gulf kingdom. A senior Saudi official on Friday defended the Gulf kingdom’s management of the pilgrimage. ‘The state did not fail, but there was a misjudgment on the part of people who did not appreciate the risks,’ the official said in the government’s first comments on the deaths.

Full Sunday Tribune report