The number of Tunisians who died during the pilgrimage to Mecca continues to rise. At least sixty have died this year in Saudi Arabia, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A nominative list was published Monday June 24 by the Tunisian consulate general in Jeddah.
The day before, Saudi Arabia had released, for the first time, an official death toll of 1,301 pilgrims. The official Saudi news agency SPA said that “83% were not allowed to perform the hajj [le pèlerinage qui a duré du 14 au 19 juin] et “had traveled long distances under the sun, without adequate shelter or comfort.”
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Pressed by the controversy which continued to swell, Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed announced, Friday June 21, the dismissal of the Minister of Religious Affairs, Brahim Chaïbi, accused of having been slow to react to the tragedy. Information on the disappearance, on Saturday June 15, of several pilgrims who were preparing to undertake the ascent of Mount Arafat, one of the most important stages of the pilgrimage, began to circulate the next day.
In the following days, videos showing lost, lonely and distressed pilgrims were widely shared on social networks. Several are still struggling to return to Tunisia and have testified in various media about the ordeal they experienced and the lack of organization observed during their journey.
Parallel travel agencies
Alerted, the Tunisian authorities were slow to react. Hamadi Soussi, general coordinator of health in the holy places, assured on June 16 that no deaths had been recorded among the pilgrims part of the official circuit. The same day, Mustapha Abdelkebir, president of the Tunisian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed that around ten pilgrims, all from the town of Ben Guerdane, in the south-east of the country, had found death between Saturday and Sunday.
According to Radio Monastir, the latter had traveled to Saudi Arabia through travel agencies, with tourist visas outside official circuits. The Saudi authorities allegedly prevented them from going by bus to Mount Arafat due to lack of registration, forcing them to cover long distances on foot under the blazing sun and temperatures sometimes exceeding 50°C.
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It was not until Tuesday June 18 that the authorities confirmed “deaths and lost people” among Tunisian pilgrims, before an official report of 35 deaths was published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As concern grew, hundreds of photos of the Minister of Religious Affairs, who was also in Mecca, were published by his services. The photos, showing the minister all smiles in the company of other pilgrims, sparked a wave of indignation.
Sweeping away the criticisms expressed by his ” critics “ while receiving the Saudi prize of “excellence in services to pilgrims” during an official ceremony organized on Wednesday June 19, the Minister of Religious Affairs even said he was satisfied with the organization of this hajj season. Returning to Tunis three days later, he tried to downplay the scale of the tragedy, placing the blame partly on the families of the dead pilgrims who turned to parallel organizing circuits, in a statement on national television upon arrival at the airport.
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This year, nearly 11,000 Tunisians were selected according to the country’s official quota to undertake the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Thousands more have turned to alternative travel agencies, which promise their customers a similar experience at a lower cost. In the absence of adequate supervision, several of them, often elderly, spent their stay in difficult or even unsanitary conditions, in oppressive heat.
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Tunisian authorities said dozens of missing pilgrims had been found in Saudi hospitals and that the search was still continuing. For some of them, consular procedures were carried out to facilitate their return to Tunisia.
