The Saudi authorities are currently coordinating the action to be taken with their counterparts from different countries in Africa and Asia, to find a solution to the problems of visa trafficking for the Hajj, relays Assabah this Thursday, June 27.
According to the daily, the responsibility for this situation lies with people who engage in intermediation in the trafficking of these special visas, the main cause of hundreds of deaths in Mecca and Medina this year.
«They abuse the good faith of people wishing to perform their hajj and send them to death“, denounces Assabahwho questioned an official from the Ministry of Tourism on this subject.
The official, having requested anonymity, preferred to evade the questions asked, under the pretext of “not being aware of these things“, while asking for additional time, “to find out».
Another person contacted by the daily, occupying a position of responsibility at the Federation of Travel Agencies, refused to answer the questions asked of him.
According to an informed source interviewed by Assabahtravel agencies which had not benefited from the quota allocated to the Hajj of this year 1445, defined at 250 places, resorted to certain devious methods, under the pretext of “help» certain Moroccans wishing to perform the rites of pilgrimage, by making them bypass official formalities.
According to the same source, the number of approved travel agencies that participated in the Hajj operation this year 1445 is barely 31 agencies, while last year, there were 160.
At the origin of this drastic drop, the new specifications adopted in the meantime for their approval, which considerably limits the competition between them.
For this same interlocutor, an investigation must necessarily be launched, so that the agencies involved in this trafficking and having violated these provisions are brought to justice, for their indirect responsibility in the deaths of Moroccans during this year’s hajj.
The daily cites the case of Egypt, where the results of a quickly carried out investigation led to the withdrawal of the approval which had been granted to 16 travel agencies, which had issued electronic visas for Saudi Arabia, not valid for the performance of Hajj.
It is precisely these pilgrims not registered by the Saudi authorities, from different countries, including Morocco, and who did not have a badge attesting to their pilgrim status, who disrupted the proceedings of the rites.
Although security measures were undertaken to ensure the smooth running of some of the rites of the pilgrimage, particularly in the Mina Valley, during the symbolic stoning of the steles of Satan, the Saudi security forces who were deployed in these places could not contain the large number of illegal pilgrims, indicates Assabah.
The passes that each pilgrim had to wear are not superfluous badges, underlines the daily, which specifies that these were “a means of identification, organization, regulation and facilitation of the operation» so that each of the pilgrims finds themselves oriented towards the site where they were supposed to be, throughout the performance of the hajj rituals.
The anarchy which took place at certain times, caused by traffickers of non-compliant visas, therefore led to the death of several hundred people, denounces Assabah.
Of the 1,300 deaths announced by the Saudi authorities, 1,078 had not been registered with the authorities responsible for organizing the Hajj.
These pilgrimsclandestine» thus represent 83% of the deaths recorded, indicates the daily, which adds that following these tragedies, it was difficult to determine their identity, because the deceased did not wear, as had initially been planned, a badge equipped with equipped chips a satellite geolocation system (GPS), obligatory for all pilgrims duly registered by the Saudi authorities.
Par Amyne Asmlal
06/26/2024 at 9:46 p.m.
