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Indonesian pilgrims depart from abroad for faster, better services
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People play with doves on May 19, 2024, at the Masjidil Haram complex in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities said the first flight group of haj pilgrims had been dispatched from Madina to Mecca on Monday. (Antara/Sigid Kurniawan)
W
hile millions of Muslims in Indonesia waited decades for their turn to go on the haj in Saudi Arabia, Tien Mulyanthi and her husband were fortunate to have their wait period shortened as they registered for the annual pilgrimage from the United Kingdom last year.
The 46-year-old disabled woman and the CEO of a Jakarta-based foundation dedicated for people with disabilities said, she opened a haj savings account before departing for Dundee in 2022 to continue her studies. Upon her arrival in the Scottish city, Tien was informed by a friend that the waiting period for the haj in the UK was quite short.
“Unlike in Indonesia [where the time of registration does not really affect the departure time], pilgrims in the UK are selected [by the authorities] on a first-come, first-served basis until the quota is met,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The haj quota for each country is usually determined by the Saudi government based on the respective size of the country’s Muslim population. But, any passport holders including Indonesians can still depart from a different country, as long as they can prove their residence permit and the spot is still available.
Indonesia, as the world’s largest Muslim country, consistently enjoys the largest pilgrim quota provided by Saudi Arabia every year, which amounts to over 200,000. Meanwhile, the UK only received a quota of around 3,600 last year, a far cry from 25,000 quota before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saudi Arabia expects the number of pilgrims this year to exceed the 1.8 million people in 2023, approaching the pre-pandemic era when more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage, AP reports.
Read also: The economic dimension of haj and 'umrah'
