A senior Saudi official defended the Gulf kingdom’s management of the Haj pilgrimage on Friday (Jun 21) after various countries reported more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed to high heat.
“The state did not fail, but there was a misjudgement on the part of people who did not appreciate the risks,” the official told AFP in the government’s first comments on the deaths.
An AFP tally on Friday, compiling official statements and reports from diplomats involved in the response, put the toll at 1,126, more than half of them from Egypt.
The senior Saudi official said the Saudi government had confirmed 577 deaths for the two busiest days of Haj: Saturday, when pilgrims gathered for hours of prayers in the blazing sun on Mount Arafat, and Sunday, when they participated in the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina.
“This happened amid difficult weather conditions and a very harsh temperature,” the official said while acknowledging that the 577 figure was partial and did not cover all of Haj, which formally ended on Wednesday.
The Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims with the means must complete it at least once before they die.
Saudi officials had earlier said 1.8 million pilgrims took part this year, a similar total to last year, and that 1.6 million came from abroad.
PERMIT-LESS PILGRIMS
Haj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals via a lottery.
Even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many pilgrims to attempt the Haj without a permit, though they risk arrest and deportation if caught by Saudi security forces.
The irregular route, which can save pilgrims thousands of dollars, has become increasingly popular since 2019 when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa, making it easier to enter the Gulf kingdom.
Before this year’s Haj, Saudi officials said they had cleared more than 300,000 would-be pilgrims from Mecca who did not have Haj permits.
But later, the senior Saudi official said on Friday, “an order came from above that we allow people who arrived at the gates of the holy places” to participate.
“We can estimate the number of the unregistered pilgrims at around 400,000,” the official said.
“Almost all of them from one nationality,” the official added, an apparent reference to Egypt.
Arab diplomats told AFP earlier this week that Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of them unregistered pilgrims.
A US State Department spokesman said on Friday that “multiple” US citizens died in the Haj.