Saudi authorities say this is to give room for ongoing expansion work aimed at boosting safety.

 Authorities in various countries are reviewing plans for this year’s annual Moslem pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia following a June 16, 2013 announcement that the number of participants at the 2013 hajj will be slashed by 20 per cent for overseas pilgrims and half for their Saudi counterparts. The measure was announced by the Saudi Minister of Hajj, Dr Bandar Hajjar. 

Egypt has already decided to send an envoy to Saudi Arabia to plead with Riyadh to re-consider the decision to reduce the number of its pilgrims to Makkah and Medina, the Press Trust of India reported. The Spokesman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, Alhaji Uba Mana, in a recent statement confirmed that Nigeria’s hajj seats have been slashed from 95,000 to 76,000, the Daily Post newspaper said. Alhaji Mana called on state Moslem pilgrim welfare boards, hajj agencies and other stakeholders to review their plans.

The SPA State news agency quoted Dr Bandar Hajjar as saying that the cuts were as a result of ongoing expansion work at holy sites in Makkah. The authorities also appealed to Moslems to postpone the annual spiritual journey, explaining that the move was to ensure the security of pilgrims by avoiding stampedes during hajj. Hatem Qadi, Deputy Hajj Minister and spokesman of the ministry, promised that the period for cutting the number of pilgrims will not exceed two years. Moslems from around the world pour into Makkah every year to perform hajj, with 3.1 million pilgrims attending last year’s event.

The World Health Organization, WHO, last month said it would help Saudi Arabia dig deeper into deadly outbreaks of a new corona virus to draw up advice ahead of this year’s hajj, Reuters news agency reported. The corona virus, which can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia, emerged in Saudi Arabia last year and claimed 17 lives as at last month.