Over 40,000 hit snag on hajj registration

Over 40,000 hajj aspirants are yet to complete their registration mainly due to “passport-related complexities” with only six days remaining before the deadline, sources at the religious affairs ministry said.

A top official of the Department of Immigration and Passports, Dhaka, yesterday said they were facing problems to deliver the passports of the pilgrims in time as the printing machine has long been out of order.

He wished to remain anonymous as he is “not authorised to say this”. No other officials could be contacted on the day and the office was closed as yesterday was a public holiday.

This year, a total of 1,27,198 Bangladeshis will be able to perform hajj as per the agreement with Saudi Arabia.

Of them, 7,198 are scheduled to perform hajj under government management and 1,20,000 through the government-approved private hajj tour operators, according to Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) Secretary General M Shahdat Hossain Taslim. 

As of yesterday, registration of around 87,000 hajj pilgrims has been completed, Md Anisur Rahman, secretary-in-charge of the religious affairs ministry, told The Daily Star.

Almost every year, hajj aspirants face sufferings at different stages due to various reasons, including irresponsibility of private hajj tour operators.

Last year, at least 100 people finally failed to perform hajj, thanks to fraudulence by three private tour operators although they completed all procedures on their part.

Officials of the three hajj agencies concerned went into hiding at the last moment without confirming their tickets.  

This year, the final registration of the pilgrims under government management started from March 1 while the registration process under private hajj management began on March 6.

The religious affairs ministry so far extended the deadline for registration thrice. The first deadline ended on March 18 with registration of only 43,000 done.

The second deadline expired on March 22 with the completion of registration of around 64,000 pilgrims, said the religious affairs ministry.

The ministry later extended the deadline to April 1.

Contacted, Md Anisur Rahman, secretary-in-charge of the religious affairs ministry, told this newspaper that mainly due to “passport-related complexities”, they didn't get satisfactory response from hajj aspirants in the registration process.

“Many didn't get their passports in time, which is a precondition for the registration,” he said, hoping that the problem will be resolved soon.

If any hajj aspirant fails to complete the registration process by the deadline, the ministry will seek registration from the second list of pilgrims to complete the quota of 1,27,198.

In that case, Anisur Rahman said, those who will miss the April 1 deadline will not be able to perform hajj this year. 

“We may extend the deadline by another two to three days for those from the second list.”

HAAB Secretary General Taslim said apart from the issues of passport, pilgrims themselves are also responsible for the lukewarm response in the registration process.

“Every hajj aspirant will have to pay at least Tk 1.38 lakh for the registration. But a section of pilgrims sometimes dilly-dally in paying the total money at one go,” he said.

The aspirants will have to pay the rest Tk 1.94 lakh [lowest amount for hajj package] within April 15.

About the passport-related problems, Taslim said, “Many pilgrims have complained to us that they didn't get their passports even after one or two months of the schedule date of delivery.”