After two years of suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Saudi authorities have reopened the doors of the kingdom to foreign Muslims for the great pilgrimage to Mecca, which will take place this year from July 7 to 12. But less than a month from the start of the event, a new procedure for obtaining visas, put in place by the host country, is causing confusion and disarray among the candidates for departure and the French actors in this ritual prescription. , which Muslims who can afford it must accomplish once in their lifetime. It disrupts the usual operation – which is quite opaque – of the hajj market (also called the “great pilgrimage”). Already weakened by two years of food shortage linked to the health situation, some of the specialized French travel agencies fear having to go out of business.
As revealed by the news site SaphirNewsthe Saudi Ministry of Hajj announced on Monday, June 6, that from now on, in order to obtain a specific visa, candidates for the great pilgrimage established in Europe, America and Australia (in Muslim countries, the regulation belongs to the public authorities) should necessarily go through a single digital platform, Motawif.
After a week of uncertainty, online registrations opened on Friday evening June 10, for three days. To apply, you must be under 65 and have a complete vaccination schedule against Covid-19. From Tuesday, June 14, a draw will determine who, among those registered, will be entitled to a visa. Numbering around 9,200 this year for France, places are scarcer than before the pandemic, when the number of visas granted fluctuated between 22,000 and 25,000.
Underground economy
This is a change in logic. Until now, visas were granted by the Saudi authorities through travel agencies, provided that they had obtained an approval, renewable each year from the Saudi authorities. These visas were unevenly distributed. Three or four big agencies got several thousand, the others much less. Some, moreover, retroceded some to subcontractors, feeding an underground economy.
But travel agencies do not wait to obtain approval and visas to pay deposits and book the services included in the package sold to customers, namely plane tickets for Jeddah, hotel nights in Mecca and Medina, places in the tents of Mina, where pilgrims spend three or four nights, and bus transport between the hotels and the various places of pilgrimage. To cover these costs, agencies therefore ask customers for an advance, which is often brought to them (in return for a commission) by “beaters”. Hoping to get visas.
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