(Mecca) Saudi Arabia is preparing to host the great Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca on Wednesday, but with a very small number of faithful this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, a first in history modern.
Posted on 27 July 2020 at 746 Updated at 8am 27
France Media Agency
Only 08 00 0 Saudis and foreign residents of the kingdom are allowed this year to perform the hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Some 2.5 million pilgrims made the great pilgrimage last year, many coming from abroad as every year.
The foreign press is also not allowed to do so this year, as the Saudi government has tightened access to Islam's holiest city.
The number of infections with the new coronavirus on Sunday exceeded 12 millions worldwide, including 260 00 0 cases recorded in Saudi Arabia.
Pilgrims wearing masks began arriving in Mecca over the weekend, they are being subjected to temperature checks and placed in quarantine, authorities said.
They receive comfort kits which include sterilized pebbles for a stoning ritual, disinfectants, masks, a prayer mat and an ihram, a seamless white garment worn by pilgrims, according to a ministry document. of hajj.
“Winning ticket”
Pilgrims must undergo a drug test before arriving in Mecca and be placed in quarantine after the pilgrimage.
The government claims to have mobilized many health establishments, mobile clinics and ambulances to meet the needs of pilgrims, who will have to keep a certain distance from each other.
The authorities had to respond to a deluge of anguished questions on Twitter from candidates for the hajj rejected by Riyadh, sometimes denouncing an opaque selection process.
The “health factors” formed the basis of the selection, assured the minister of Hajj Mohammad Benten on the Saudi television channel Al-Arabiya, describing the process as transparent.
Residents from 70 countries participated in the draw organized by the government. Among the lucky ones, Nasser, a Nigerian who lives in the capital Riyadh, is delighted to have won the “winning ticket”.
“This feeling is indescribable,” he told AFP before his arrival in Mecca.
The Saudi pilgrims were selected from a group of medical professionals and soldiers who were infected and then cured of COVID – 16, specified the ministry.
Foreign residents applied online, with the government assuring that they would represent 48% of pilgrims, but did not specify the number of candidates and selected persons.
“Substantial cost”
In a country where religious tourism generates approximately 11 billions of dollars each year, holding a reduced hajj threatens to push Saudi Arabia into economic slump.
Faced with the slowdown caused by the fall in oil prices and the pandemic, the world's leading crude exporter has taken austerity measures, tripling the VAT, suspending social benefits and making other budget cuts .
“Limiting the hajj to residents represents a substantial cost, but surmountable for the economy,” said Sofia Meranto, of the Eurasia Group analysis center.
According to her, the authorities hope “to recover the lost income by the next hajj or with a return of the umrah”, or small pilgrimage, which was suspended in March.
The “umrah”, which attracts tens of thousands of worshipers every month to Mecca, can be performed at any time of the year, unlike the hajj which can only be performed at specific dates on the Islamic lunar calendar.
Mecca has experienced a real estate boom in recent years, with the construction of shopping malls, apartments and luxury hotels.
But these places have remained almost deserted because of the pandemic, which has also struck many businesses in the tourism sector on which hundreds of thousands of families depend.
Many of them reported massive layoffs, pay cuts or late payments.