Saudi Arabia to increase number of quotas for Hajj pilgrims

ABU DHABI. KAZINFORM King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud gave his consent to increase the number quotas for Hajj pilgrims and to enlarge capacity of the holy city of Mecca, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Minister of Hajj and Umrah Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh bin Tahir Benten confirmed this information and expressed gratitude to King Salman, Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince.

The decision was announced at a meeting with the heads of delegations of several Arab and Islamic states.

1,325,372 foreign nationals and 537,537 Saudi citizens performed Hajj last year - 1,862,909 in total. This is the lowest number of pilgrims in the past 10 years.

More than 1,7mln foreigners and 746,511 Saudis performed Hajj in 2007 (2.4mln people in total).

Recall that in 2016, Kazakhstan received 3,000 quotas for Hajj. 10 local tour operators were entitled to organize hajj in Kazakhstan.