The recent announcement by the Saudi Arabian Kingdom, barring foreign countries from participating in the 2021 Hajj has come as a rude shock to pilgrims globally who are suffering such restrictions for the second year.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, founded in 1932, indeed dashed the hope of over 2 million prospective pilgrims across the world, who had concluded plans for the 2021Hajj scheduled to be held at the end of July.
The new development barring travellers from various countries from performing in 2021 Hajj, the Kingdom said, was caused by COVID 19 concerns.
However, Saudi Arabia announced that it would allow only 60,000 vaccinated residents of the kingdom to perform the annual hajj.
The hajj ministry said this year’s pilgrimage would be “open for nationals and residents of the kingdom, limited to 60,000 pilgrims”, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
The statement added that two-thirds of the number would be residents from among the 160 different nationalities in the country that would have normally been represented at the Hajj. One-third would be Saudi security personnel and medical staff. This year the pilgrimage is expected to start in mid-July.
Over 2.4million pilgrims attended the Hajj in 2019. COVID-19 pandemic did not allow for global participation in the 2020 annual pilgrimage which is the fifth pillar of the Five Pillars of Islam where millions of Muslims from around the world visit Mecca and Medina every year during the Hajj season for a week.
Nigeria, which hitherto had 95,000 initial quota before this announcement, was expecting another batch of about 65, 000 pilgrims who were also hopeful of performing Hajj this year after their failed trip of 2020.
In 2020, Saudi Arabia only allowed about 1,000 Saudi citizens and residents to perform the hajj after barring Muslims abroad from taking part for the first time in modern times.
Hajj is an once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, as well as a major source of income for the Saudi government.
“For a lot of African Muslims, the hajj is a journey of a lifetime. To go to Mecca is really symbolic,” said Bakary Sambe, Executive Director of the Timbuktu Institute, a think tank based in Senegal.
Before the pandemic enforced social distancing globally, some 2.5 million pilgrims used to visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long Hajj, and the lesser, year-round Umrah pilgrimage, which altogether earned the kingdom about $12bn a year, according to official data.
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Saudi Arabia has so far recorded more than 463,000 coronavirus infections, including 7,536 deaths.
However, the congregation of millions of pilgrims from around the world could really create a major avenue for coronavirus transmission in the country.
The Saudi health ministry says it has administered more than 15 million coronavirus vaccine doses, in a country with a population of about 34 million.
In a relaxation of coronavirus restrictions last October, Saudi Arabia opened the Grand Mosque for prayers for the first time in seven months and partially resumed the Umrah pilgrimage.
The limit on Umrah pilgrims is 20,000 a day, with a total of 60,000 worshippers allowed to perform daily prayers at the mosque.
The Umrah usually attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe each year. Authorities said the Umrah would be allowed to return to full capacity once the threat of the pandemic has abated.
A source said the plans were initially to allow some numbers of vaccinated pilgrims from abroad, but confusion over types of vaccines, their efficacy and the emergence of new variants has pushed officials to reconsider everything and proclaim the ban on foreign Hajj pilgrims.
As part of Saudi’s economic reform plans pursued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom was hoping to raise the number of Umrah and Hajj pilgrims to 15 million and 5 million respectively by 2020 and aimed to double the Umrah number again to 30 million by 2030.
The Saudi’s economic reform planned to earn $13.32 billion (50 billion riyals) of revenues from the Hajj alone by 2030.
Makkah is home to the Masjid Al Haram, known as the Grand Mosque, which houses the Kaaba – Islam’s holiest site – and is also the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.
Medina is home to the Masjid an-Nabawi, or the Prophet’s Mosque, another important place of pilgrimage for worshippers during the Hajj and Umrah.
Makkah and Medina are set to play an important role in Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s long-term development plan being spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The overall aim is to re-channel the Saudi economy away from its dependence on oil revenues.
Meanwhile, with religious tourism, such a crucial source of non-oil revenue, much of the development in and around Makkah and Medina over the coming years is directly associated with the goals laid out in Vision 2030, which include plans to significantly boost pilgrim numbers as well as increase the country’s appeal as a wider tourist destination.
The millions of pilgrims, who travel to Makkah and Medina each year, also form a bastion of both the regional and national economy, with the Hajj and Umrah together contributing 20 per cent of the Kingdom’s non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 7 per cent of total GDP.
While initiatives are currently underway to increase the number of non-religious visitors, pilgrims are expected to continue underpinning growth in the country’s wider tourism sector, with Vision 2030 targeting 30 million Umrah visitors alone by 2030.
Due to the importance of Makkah and Medina in the Muslim world, and the millions of pilgrims they attract, the two holy cities form a major component of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy.
The pilgrimages of Hajj and Umrah are performed each year, with worshippers’ fees, food, transport and accommodation totalling some $12bn in revenues.
But a series of deadly disasters over the years, including a 2015 stampede that killed up to 2,300 worshippers, had also prompted criticism of the kingdom’s management of the pilgrimage.
Pundits averred that the crowds of millions of pilgrims from around the world could be a breeding ground for virus transmission, noting that in the past some worshippers have returned to their countries with respiratory and other diseases.
In February this year, the government suspended entry to the kingdom from 20 countries, with the exception of diplomats, Saudi citizens, medical practitioners and their families, to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
The ban, which is still in place to date, includes people arriving from the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the United States, Britain, South Africa, France, Egypt, Lebanon, India and Pakistan.
This year’s banning of global Hajj pilgrims due to the Covid-19 concern has put a wedge on the tourism and revenue drive of the great kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Besides, the hope of Muslim pilgrims across the globe including Nigerians who wanted to perform this once in a lifetime obligation and have missed the opportunity have been dashed for two years running.
Many external economies have been hurt as well. Saudi hajj demands account for nearly two-thirds of Somalia’s annual livestock exports, according to the World Bank, which reports that more than five million sheep, goats, camels and livestock were shipped north from Somali ports via the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia in 2015. Exports are already expected to be cut in half this year, mainly due to travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19.
The evaporation of exports has led to oversupply in local markets where prices have dropped dramatically, with camels being sold for $500, half their usual price, according to reports.
“The cancellation of the Hajj has massive implications for the lives and livelihoods of the Somali people,” said Ahmed Khalif, Country Director for Somalia at the charity Action against Hunger.
Khalif added that livestock accounts for about 60 per cent of household income in this predominantly rural country. According to him, “This is a major blow to Somali pastoralist households in particular, who survive on livestock exports to Saudi Arabia. Up to three-quarters of Somalia’s export earnings come from livestock making the sale of animals abroad a crucial lifeline for the Somali economy.”
Some African Muslims spend a lifetime saving to make the hajj pilgrimage. With the huge downsizing of this year’s hajj due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are heavily bemoaning the missed chance and some sincerely worry about getting a refund, as well, from various organisations handling their hajj financing and travel services.