Minister Of Religion: Additional 20 Thousand Hajj Quota Will Cut Queues

JAKARTA - Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said the additional 20 thousand quotas given by the Saudi Arabian government to Indonesia would cut the queue for Hajj in the country.

"This is happiness as well as a challenge," said Minister of Religion Yaqut in a statement quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, October 21.

Previously, Indonesia received an additional 20,000 hajj quotas for 2024, from a bilateral meeting held by President Joko Widodo and Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud.

In a meeting that took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN-GCC Summit in Riyadh, on Friday, Jokowi conveyed frankly about the length of the Hajj queue in Indonesia with the presence of pilgrims who even had to wait up to 47 years.

According to Minister of Religion Yaqut, this additional quota is good news, but on the other hand it is also a challenge because it must be prepared better and faster.

With this addition, the total number of pilgrims who will be dispatched to Saudi Arabia is 241,000 people for the implementation of the 1445 Hijri/2024 AD pilgrimage.

"This must be prepared even better. It is not easy to prepare for the departure of 241,000 people, if there is an additional 20 thousand," he said.

Yaqut admitted that his party had held a virtual meeting with the ranks of the Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah. They are asked to immediately prepare steps in line with the addition of the hajj quota so that it can be distributed fairly.

"In the future there will still be priority for the elderly. Currently, there are approximately 600,000 elderly people. I want this so that they can also be a priority," said Yaqut.