JEDDAH, 4 June 2007 — Hatim Qadi, first undersecretary at the Haj Ministry, told Arab News yesterday that the ministry is putting a three-year moratorium on issuing new Haj travel licenses due to capacity concerns, especially at the Mina encampment.

“Though the suspension of new licenses has been effective since last year the ministry renewed the order last week in order to avoid any inconvenience and embarrassment to the officials of the tourism companies the world over who seek new licenses,” said Qadi.

The holy site of Mina sprawls over an area of 1,840 square meters providing room for approximately 1.2 million pilgrims from outside and 500,000 from within. It means each pilgrim would have to squeeze into a space of 1.6 square meters over a period of three days.

In the case of domestic Haj companies, the Haj Ministry has fixed the number of pilgrims at 2,500 for large companies and 1,000 for small ones.

The ministry’s offices have lately been receiving increasing numbers of requests and queries about new permits from various foreign travel companies and charity organizations, said Qadi.

The foreign pilgrims are normally allowed to come to the Kingdom either through government Haj missions or through tourism companies and charity organizations. Mostly the Haj missions send the bulk of the pilgrims excepting some countries such as Bangladesh from where only 25 percent of the pilgrims are sent by the Haj mission and the rest come with the help of tourism companies.

Saad Al-Qarashi, chairman of the National Committee for Haj, Umrah and Tourism, said the ministry is expected to start next week the renewal of licenses for the foreign tourism companies that have not been involved in any violations in the past.

There are currently approximately 2,000 foreign companies for Haj operations across the world. Al-Qarashi said the ministry has been trying its best to stem the problem of overcrowding of pilgrims in Mina and other places.

More information and answers to their questions on the matter would be available on the Haj Ministry’s website, said Qadi.