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week after the stampede tragedy in Mina, Saudi Arabia, widely considered to be the country'€™s worst haj-related incident in 25 years, the Indonesian government has announced that the first wave of Indonesian pilgrims had left the holy city of Mecca to return home.

According to the Religious Affairs Ministry'€™s spokesperson, Rosidin Karidi, as many as 37 batches of Indonesian haj pilgrims have left Mecca to Jeddah, where they will embark on flights heading back to Indonesia.

'€œAs of Thursday evening, 14,999 pilgrims from nine embarkation routes have left Saudi Arabia, with 11'€“15 batches to leave each day,'€ Rosidin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. This year, as many as 168,000 Indonesian pilgrims observed the annual haj.

Specifically for the families and victims of the Mina incident, Rosidin said that the Indonesian haj management committee (PPIH) in Saudi Arabia had started offering the option of tanazul, or early departure from haj, meaning that those affected by the tragedy would have first preference to board early flights home as long as there were available seats.

According to the ministry spokesman, the tanazul option for haj is a highly-sought privilege that allows pilgrims to leave the country earlier than their previously set embarkation schedule.

'€œThe Saudi authorities have certain criteria that they use to grant tanazul, and this year they have prioritized the victims of the tragedy to receive this privilege, if they want it,'€ Rosidin explained.

Rosidin added that the injured would continue to receive medical treatment until they were deemed fit to return home. The ministry'€™s Mecca office chief, Arsyad Hidayat, said that only one Indonesian pilgrim had taken advantage of the tanazul.

'€œThis is our form of assistance and respect to them [the victims and their families],'€ Arsyad said in a statement on Thursday, regarding the tanazul privileges.

The Mina stampede took place at a crossroads on Street 204 '€” one of the two main arteries leading through the camp at Mina to Jamarat, the site where pilgrims perform a stoning the devil ritual by throwing rocks at three large pillars. Various media reports have claimed that the stampede killed more than a thousand people and injured hundreds more.

In 1990, as many as 1,426 pilgrims died in a similar incident in a Mecca pedestrian tunnel. Both stampedes occurred on Idul Adha (the Islamic Day of Sacrifice), one of Islam'€™s most important feasts.

Arsyad also said the ministry had communicated with Saudi authorities regarding the possibility of bringing the victims'€™ bodies home. '€œBut most Indonesian haj pilgrims are preferring to bury their relatives in Mecca,'€ Arsyad said.

Since the corpses have been kept for seven days, Al Muashim mortuary authorities have decided to bury those that had been identified.

He added that one injured Indonesian from the SUB 48 kloter, Murtiningsih Neman Sunar Akun, had returned to her group, bringing the number of Indonesian victims being treated at Saudi hospitals down to four people.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry'€™s director for the protection of Indonesian nationals and entities abroad, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, said the Mecca office had confirmed the deaths of two more Indonesian pilgrims in last week'€™s tragedy, increasing the country'€™s haj death toll to 59 people.

The newly identified victims were Abdul Wahab Idris Jafar and Hosen Ibrohim Nimat. Iqbal also said the number of missing Indonesians had decreased from 78 pilgrims on Wednesday to 74 people on Thursday.

Iqbal also revealed that four containers of victims'€™ remains had been temporarily transported to Jeddah close to the site of King Abdul Aziz Hospital, where they await disaster victim identification (DVI) teams to begin their work.