Ministry Of Religion Decides Not To Take Additional Hajj Quota

The Ministry of Religion's Director General of Hajj and Umrah, Hilman Latief/Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion has decided not to take the additional hajj quota provided by the Saudi Arabian government considering the time available is no longer possible to re-deploy Indonesian pilgrims during the 1443H/2022M Hajj season. The government received a notification letter from Saudi Arabia regarding an additional hajj quota on June 21. "The Ministry of Religion continues to communicate intensively after receiving an official letter from Saudi regarding the additional quota of 10,000. We communicate intensively with various parties, including the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah of Saudi Arabia," said the Director General of Hajj Organisation. and the Ministry of Religion's Umrah, Hilman Latief, in a written statement received in Jakarta, Wednesday, June 29. Hilman said the process of departing Indonesian pilgrims must go through a number of stages in accordance with applicable regulations. First, the Ministry of Religion must hold a working meeting with Commission VIII of the DPR to discuss the use of additional quotas and their financing. After that, a Decree of the Minister of Religion regarding Guidelines for Repayment of Hajj for Additional Quotas must be issued.

At the same time, the Ministry of Religion must verify the data of pilgrims who are entitled to leave and then be announced as pilgrims who are entitled to make payments. The next stage is the repayment period. During the repayment period, the Ministry of Religion must take care of the pilgrims' documents; passports, service packs, and visas. However, packaging cannot be done if there is no service contract and payment with a service provider in Saudi. "A pilgrim visa cannot be issued before packaging is available. Package input cannot be done if there is no certainty about the batch and flight schedule. Flight schedules cannot be done before there is a package. flight contracts and time slots. So there needs to be a contract adjustment," he said. In the process, said Hilman, based on existing regulations, the time available was not enough. The deadline for the visa process for regular pilgrims is June 29, 2022. While the last flight or closing date for the departure of pilgrims from the country is July 3, 2022. "This means that per day there are only 5 days available. This is certainly not enough time to process additional quotas. withdrawn since the beginning of receiving the official letter on June 22, 2022, there is only about 10 days. That is also of course not sufficient," he said. It doesn't take long for the payment and packaging process to take place. "This includes the process of returning the Special Hajj Travel Expenses (Bipih) from BPKH to PIHK, managing tickets and service contracts in Saudi Arabia, as well as inputting data into E-Haj and visas," said Hilman.