Will Negotiate With Saudi, Ministry Of Religion Efforts For Indonesian Hajj Officers To Be Added

Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar. (ANTARA PHOTO-Muhammad Adimaja)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) continues to seek to increase the number of Hajj officers from Indonesia through negotiating steps with the Government of Saudi Arabia.

"Hopefully we will be given the opportunity and successfully negotiated with this officer," said Director General (Dirjen) of Hajj and Umrah at the Ministry of Religion Hilman Latief in a Hearing Meeting on Hajj 2025 held by the Working Committee (Panja) for Hajj Implementation Fee (BPIH) 1446 Hijriah/2025 AD DPR Commission VIII at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Thursday, January 2, confiscated by Antara.

According to Hilman, efforts to increase the number of Hajj officers need to be carried out because ideally Indonesian pilgrims need as many as 4,200 Hajj officers as in the 2024 Hajj.

"This number has not reached our ideal stage, which is usually up to 4,200 officers," he said.

Previously, on Monday, December 30 in a meeting with Commission VIII of the DPR RI, the Minister of Religion (Menag) Nasaruddin Umar had said that his party would continue to strive to increase the quota of Hajj officers as in previous years, considering the number of pilgrims that must be served by 221,000 people.

"This number - the quota of Hajj officers - has not yet reached the ideal stage considering that there are 221,000 pilgrims who must be served. Therefore, we will continue to strive to get additional quotas of officers as in previous years," said Nasaruddin.

He said, the consideration is that on average, Indonesian pilgrims who are old need assistance in carrying out the pilgrimage.

According to him, the most appropriate assistance is from Indonesian officers because of the language equality and knowing the disease history of the pilgrims.

"The most effective and most appropriate to accompany them is of course assistance from Indonesia because the language is the same, maybe the history of the disease also knows and actually also helps Saudi Arabia itself because the more we assist, it will automatically reduce the burden on Saudi Arabia officers themselves," said Nasaruddin.