CNN
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With the official death toll from this year’s Hajj pilgrimage approaching 500, there were not enough medical personnel or basic equipment to protect Hajj pilgrims from the effects of the extreme heat wave that hit Saudi Arabia last week, two pilgrims who recently returned from the Hajj told CNN.
Witnesses said it had become commonplace during mass religious events for devotees to walk past unconscious bodies draped in white cloth.
The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca this year took place amid extreme weather conditions with temperatures much higher than normal. The exact death toll is unclear but is expected to rise as countries report their own death tolls among their own citizens.
Moreover, governments only keep track of those pilgrims who have registered and visited Mecca according to their national quotas, raising concerns that further deaths could occur among unregistered pilgrims.
Jiral Ali, 40, who returned to London on Friday from the pilgrimage with his 70-year-old father, told CNN that authorities had failed to provide Hajj pilgrims with enough water, shade or medical assistance during their week there.
“It seemed to me like there were too many people and not enough medical personnel, so they were waiting for the worst to happen and then they would intervene,” Ali said, adding that incidents of people fainting were becoming more frequent.
“Seeing people suffering made it difficult for me to concentrate on Hajj,” he added.
Ali’s comments were echoed by another witness, Ahmad, a 44-year-old from Indonesia, who told CNN he saw many people getting sick and even dying from the heat.
Fadel Sena/AFP/Getty Images
A woman uses a fan to cool a man lying on the ground during the Hajj.
“On the way back, I saw many pilgrims who had died. Every few hundred metres, a body covered in ilom lay. [white fabric] “Fabric,” he said.
“Whenever locals or certain organisations distribute water, pilgrims immediately flock to it,” he added, saying he had not seen a single medical worker or ambulance along the route.
Both pilgrims lamented the poor infrastructure and organisation of this year’s pilgrimage, especially for those who travelled individually and were not part of any sanctioned tour group.
Saudi Arabia requires each pilgrim to obtain one of 1.8 million permits, which can cost thousands of dollars, to legally enter Mecca. Pilgrims without a permit typically do not travel in air-conditioned tour buses where water and food are readily available.
Rafiq Maqbool/AP
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.
Despite the luxuries offered to some, all pilgrims spend most of the day walking outdoors in scorching heat.
Ali said five hours of walking each day is the minimum, but many pilgrims spend 12 hours a day outdoors.
For him, the long walk is a fundamental part of the hajj experience, but he believes the Saudi government should have provided more assistance.
“If it takes eight hours to get from point A to point B, that is part of perseverance and it is considered a hardship… but at no point has it been said, ‘If you don’t have water for 10 hours, that’s part of the Hajj’. It is not considered part of the Hajj. We should provide comfort and look after ourselves,” he said.
The daughter of an elderly Indonesian man who died during hajj told CNN that his family is “delighted” that he will be buried in Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, after years of anticipating the pilgrimage.
Heru Jumartiyah told CNN in an interview on Sunday that his 86-year-old father, Ngatijo Wongso Sentono, registered for the Hajj pilgrimage in 2018 and travelled from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to Mecca with his 83-year-old wife and several neighbours.
“My father was very keen to go on the Hajj and wanted to leave immediately,” she told CNN.
According to Islamic belief, dying and being buried in Mecca is considered a blessing, and many Muslims make the journey in old age after saving up for the pilgrimage.
CNN has reached out to Saudi Arabian officials about their reported lack of response to this year’s heatwaves, but has not yet heard back.
More than 1.8 million people took part in this year’s Hajj, one of the world’s largest religious congregations, according to the Saudi Arabian General Authority for Statistics.
While deaths among pilgrims are not uncommon – more than 200 died last year – this year’s gathering is taking place in particularly hot temperatures.
The hajj season changes each year according to the Islamic calendar and this year it fell in June, one of the hottest months in Saudi Arabia.
Hajj takes place in the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, two months and ten days after the end of Ramadan. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar and is shorter than the Gregorian calendar, the date of Hajj in the Gregorian calendar shifts slightly each year.
