Hajj 2022 Quota: The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah Saudi Arabia Thursday issued provisional Haj Quota to each country, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, UK and others, for the year 2022.
"Indonesia receives the largest share followed by Pakistan and India", the Ministry said.
Saudi Arabia had on April 10 announced that it will allow 1 million domestic and foreign pilgrims to join the Hajj pilgrimage to Makkah in the upcoming Haj season.
More than 2.5 million pilgrims perform Hajj in normal days. However, the Kingdom curtailed the number of pilgrims in 2020, 2021, and also in 2022 owing to the health concern and the Covid-19 Pandemic.
According to the details obtained from the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah sources, India has been allotted a quota of 79,237, Pakistan 81,132 and Indonesia has been allotted a quota of 100,051.
The Hajj quota for Bangladesh is 57,585, Nigeria 43,008, Afghanistan 13,582 and Turkey 37,770. UK, USA and France have been respectively allotted a quota of 12,348, 9,504 and 9,268.
"The details of Hajj 2022 quota released today is provisional", the Ministry said.
Saudi Arabia allots Haj quota to each country based on the population of Muslims. Accordingly, India was allotted a quota of 2,25,000 in 2019. Haj Committee of India then distributes this quota to different states based on Muslim population, and also reserve part of this quota for private tour operators.
The Haj Committee has started receiving application form from November 01, 2021. The last date of application was February 15, 2022. The Haj Committee however re-opened the application window on April 09, 2022. The last date of fresh application has been fixed as April 22, 2022.
The Haj Committee of India had till Feb 15, 2022 received application from some 01 lakh pilgrims. Now, since the country has been allotted a quota of 79,237 pilgrims, the final list will be prepared with the help of draw (lottery also called as Haj Qurrah). The Haj Qurrah is conducted by various states at their respective headquarters.
The Hajj Committee of India will release the Qurrah schedule, along with Haj flight date and schedule, in due course.
The upcoming season is expected to be the first to allow foreign pilgrims to perform Hajj, as the last two seasons were limited only to domestic pilgrims to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2021, the Holy city of Makkah received around 60,000 pilgrims, while in 2020 only 1000 selected pilgrims performed Hajj, according to the ministry.
Before the pandemic till 2019, over 2.5 million pilgrims of different ethnicities from all across the world used to perform Hajj every year.
The likely date of Hajj 2022 is either July 07 or 08, 2022, corresponding to 10th of Dhul Hijjah 1443 AH. The final date will be decided once the new moon of the month of Dhul Hijjah is sighted.
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