Saturday, July 1, 2023

The Minister for Hajj and Umrah, Saudi Arabia, Tawfiq Al-Rabiah has rolled out a road map for next year’s 2024 Hajj exercise.

Al-Rabiah unveiled the plan on Friday at the headquarters of the ministry in Makkah in a meeting with the leadership of the hajj missions that participated in the 2023 hajj exercise.

The session was to mark the end of the 2023 Hajj pilgrimage performed by more than two million pilgrims from over 160 countries.

Al-Rabiah disclosed that preparations for next year’s hajj would begin with the issuance of letters to countries that announced the commencement of preparations for the exercise.

The Minister said this would be followed by the issuance of letters of confirmation of the number of pilgrims slots allocated to participating countries.

He said for the 2024 pilgrimage, preparatory meetings would be held from September 16 to November 4 of this year; while an international symposium and exhibition would be organised on January 8.

Al-Rabiah said accommodation and masha’er contracts would be concluded on February 25; while visa issuance would begin on March 1 and close on April 29.

He added that the first set of pilgrims for the next year’s hajj exercise would arrive in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on May 9.

He advised participating countries to prepare early enough for the pilgrimage in order to get their preferred locations at Masha’er (Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah).

At the meeting, Iraq was announced as the winner of the 2023 Labbaikum Hajj Services Award. Gambia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and Azerbaijan were also recognised for their performance in various hajj operations.

Source: https://newtelegraphng.com/saudi-arabia-unveils-plan-for-2024-hajj/