KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's haj quota for this year is 14,306 pilgrims, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Idris Ahmad said.
Idris, who announced this on his Facebook account, said the current haj quota for Malaysian pilgrims is 45 per cent of the previous annual quota of 31,600, which was announced in Jan 2020, before the lockdown was enforced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The same quota is applied to all other countries. This is good news for Muslims in Malaysia who have been waiting for two years due to the pandemic.
"On behalf of the Malaysian government, I express my gratitude to Allah SWT with this announcement and express my deepest appreciation and thanks to the Saudi government for the total quota given to the Malaysian pilgrims.
"This year, pilgrims approved to perform haj are those aged under 65 years old; with no chronic disease; have a Covid-19 vaccination certificate and must submit a negative Reverse transcription-polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test result within 72 hours from the time of departure," he said during the Facebook live session today.
Idris said the Saudi government had announced only one million or 40 per cent of haj pilgrims would able to perform their fifth pillar of Islam for this year's haj season compared with the 2.5 million in 2019.
"This is of course following the assessment and also precautions to ensure the health and safety of all pilgrims from all over the world.
"At the same time, the Saudi government has also determined that 85 per cent of these 1 million pilgrims are foreigners.
"This is higher than in 2019 when the congregation from outside Saudi Arabia was only 75 per cent."
Idris said Tabung Haji (TH) was currently making the final preparations to bring the Malaysian pilgrims to perform their haj and would be issuing offer letters soon.
"The selected pilgrims will be asked to undergo a health check-up and respond to the offer letter promptly.
"I also seek all prospective pilgrims to make the necessary preparations in terms of knowledge; health; spiritual and physical as well as financial.
"Prospective pilgrims are also advised to be prepared with the relevant documents, especially passports and obtain the mandatory meningococcal vaccination and Covid-19 vaccine when called by the Health Ministry so that the vaccination process can be carried out accordingly.
Idris said TH will make an announcement from time to time if there is any further information from the Saudi government.
He added that TH will continue with the assistance for haj payment for prospective pilgrims this year.
"If there are no issues, InsyaAllah, the TH management will announce the new payment schedule for the pilgrims tomorrow, Friday (April 22) at a time to be announced later," he said.