17:08, 13 апреля 2022, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Jazgul MASALIEVA
It is likely that Kyrgyzstanis will be able to make hajj to Saudi Arabia this year. Spokesman for the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SDMK) Maksat Atabaev told 24.kg news agency.
According to him, no official permission has been given so far to citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic to visit Mecca.
«Saudi Arabia has stated that it is ready to receive 1 million people for the hajj this year, including its citizens. So far, there is no official confirmation for Kyrgyzstanis and it is not known what quota we will get. Kyrgyzstan was in a good position on the map of Saudi Arabia in terms of the spread of COVID-19, so we hope that we will get quotas, but less than before,» Maksat Atabaev told.
Saudi Arabia has set several conditions for pilgrims in 2022:
The SDMK asks citizens who are included in the e-list of the muftiyat for performing the hajj to get vaccinated in advance.
«It is necessary to go through all the stages of vaccination with one of the vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-Astrazeneca, Janssen,» the spokesman said.
In connection with the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Saudi Arabia banned large pilgrimage to the shrines of Islam in Mecca and Medina for foreign citizens. There were restrictions on the hajj for the Saudis themselves. The pilgrimage took place without participation of foreign citizens for two years. This year, Saudi Arabia decided to receive Muslims from other countries.
According to the muftiyat, about 6,000 Kyrgyzstanis are in the electronic list for the hajj. Earlier, the muftiyat reported that a total of 9,586 people registered for hajj in 2020. Only 2,488 pilgrims of them wrote applications for a refund.