The week of the hajj began on Monday 26 June, the customary annual pilgrimage to Mecca for people of the Muslim religion, but the site through which the Saudi regime wanted to centralize the management of travel and reservations – removing it from private companies – is not working as it should, creating inconvenience.
Every year more than 2 million people who arrive in Saudi Arabia from all over the world participate in the pilgrimage: a similar number is expected again this year, after three years of restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic and despite the global increase in prices (to give an idea, currently in Egypt the cheapest package for the pilgrimage costs about 6 thousand dollars per person, double last year).
The pilgrimage takes place between the eighth and thirteenth day of the last month of the Islamic calendar and the final destination is the Great Mosque of Mecca, where the Kaabah is located, a black cubic-shaped building located in the center of the mosque’s large courtyard . The hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam and for the faithful it represents a moment of purification. According to the doctrine, it must be performed at least once in a lifetime by every person of the Muslim religion, provided that their health conditions and economic means permit it. Anyone who is physically prevented from doing so can delegate someone else to carry out the religious obligation, obtaining the “spiritual” advantages at the cost of paying for travel and maintenance on site for the person in charge. It is also possible to leave funds in inheritance so that the rite is performed in the name and for the benefit of a dead person.
Pilgrims walking around the Kaabah during the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Last September, the Saudi government created an online platform called Stab to aggregate in a single space everything needed to plan the hajj: once an account has been created, users are offered various travel packages which may include air tickets, visas, accommodation, travel between sacred places, medical insurance and restaurant services . The service is designed especially for pilgrims arriving from the United States, Australia and Europe, but so far those who have tried to use it have encountered problems connecting to the server, refused payments, purchases without confirmation and difficulty communicating with customer service.
Mohammed Imam, an engineer living in Austin, Texas, he recounted al Washington Post who has been trying to buy a package for himself and his wife since February, and who risks not being able to make it due to the numerous errors in the system. Another person wrote in the Facebook group “Texas Nusuk Hajj 2023”: «This year I was unable to get a suitable package because they were all sold out, and for those that were available the purchase was not successful due to the site problems. Judging by the many testimonials like these available online, the problems are general.
The new platform has also complicated the life of travel agencies. Before launching the new service, the Saudi government had announced that pilgrims from Western countries would no longer be able to book travel through agencies, but would have to apply individually through official channels.
Muhammad Shahidullah, owner of a travel agency in New York, explained to Washington Post which until then had organized hundreds of trips to Mecca for US pilgrims, in collaboration with local mosques. Since the Saudi government prevented him, the mosques have canceled their contracts and he, like others, is no longer able to keep the agency going. In short, the launch of the Nusuk platform blocked the activity of Western tour operators, but the government maintains that the main purpose of the initiative is to protect pilgrims from scams and unjustifiably high prices.
The platform is part of the larger Saudi government plan called Vision 2030introduced in 2016 with the aim of financing a series of projects – economic, urban, cultural – to allow the kingdom’s economy to become less and less dependent on the production and export of oil.
For some time Saudi Arabia has been trying to give a more modern and presentable image of itself in order to ease the pressure of the Western media, encourage foreign investments and improve political relations with its allies. The non-governmental human rights organization Amnesty International has placed the country on its blacklist for human rights violations, and according to theEconomist And one of the most authoritarian countries in the worldwith a clear tendency to repress any form of dissent and emancipation.