Govt to seek haj facility upgrades from Saudi

HAJI - The government plans to ask Saudi Arabia to secure a number of facility upgrades to better accommodate Indonesian pilgrims during next year's haj season.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said on Thursday that despite this year's successful haj, some service improvements were still needed, including more tents for Indonesian pilgrims.

The additional tents, Lukman said, were needed in Mina, where pilgrims perform the ritual of jamrah (stone-throwing), because the tents are already at full capacity.

Another improvement he deems essential is to see more toilets to prevent long queues.

Lukman also said Indonesia needed an additional quota for medical officers.

This year, Indonesia received only 250 extra slots for medical officers from the previous quota of 3,250. But the additional slots failed to accommodate the ample number of medical officers needed to handle Indonesian pilgrims.

"This is all under the authority of the Saudi government. What we should do is convince them that we need these additional numbers," Lukman said.

As of Wednesday, around 116 haj groups from Indonesia's first batch of pilgrims have returned to the country.

At least 216 people from a total of 221,000 Indonesian pilgrims died while on the pilgrimage, mostly due to the heart diseases they had before flying to Mecca.(Nurul Fitri Ramadhani)