Nearly 2,000 pilgrims from Kurdistan Region attending 2022 Hajj

Hajj will begin on July 7 and continue for six days. The Saudi Hajj and Umrah Ministry pointed out that 85 percent of pilgrims attending this year’s Hajj will be foreigners. 
Muslim pilgrims are walking around the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia's Grand Mosque of Mecca, July 31, 2020. (Photo: AP)
Muslim pilgrims are walking around the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia's Grand Mosque of Mecca, July 31, 2020. (Photo: AP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Approximately 2,000 pilgrims from the Kurdistan Region are set to perform Hajj this year after authorities in Saudi Arabia allowed foreigners to attend the ritual again, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced. 

Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah Ministry will allow up to one million foreign pilgrims to visit the kingdom this year. For two years, pilgrims weren’t allowed visit due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

More than 15,000 Iraqi pilgrims can visit Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s Hajj and Umrah Directorate, Sheikh Niyaz Raghib Naqshabandi, told the KRG Media and Information Department. 

The Kurdistan Region’s quota for Hajj attendance is nearly 2,000 pilgrims in 2022, he added. 

Hajj will begin on July 7 and continue for six days. The Saudi Hajj and Umrah Ministry pointed out that 85 percent of pilgrims attending this year’s Hajj will be foreigners. 

Foreign pilgrims must present a negative PCR test for coronavirus taken no more than 72 hours before their arrival in the kingdom. 

A mere 1,000 local pilgrims attended the Hajj in 2020 following the onset of the pandemic and the strict precautionary measures imposed worldwide. In 2021, that number increased to 60,000. 

Before the pandemic, the oil-rich kingdom received two million pilgrims each year. Those pilgrims generated an average of $12 billion for the country.