After a whole lot of pilgrims died within the scorching desert warmth through the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the Egyptian authorities is taking motion in opposition to tour corporations that facilitated the journey to Saudi Arabia, and stated on Saturday that it had suspended the licenses of 16 corporations.
At the very least 450 folks died through the pilgrimage, by which vacationers endured most temperatures that ranged from 108 levels to 120 levels Fahrenheit (42 to 49 levels Celsius). However the precise variety of fatalities is anticipated to climb far greater as governments get extra correct tallies of the deaths. (Egypt, for one, has formally acknowledged solely 31 deaths.)
In asserting the suspension of the 16 journey corporations, the Egyptian authorities stated the companies failed to supply the pilgrims necessary providers like medical care. It stated the businesses didn’t present the pilgrims with “applicable lodging,” which prompted pilgrims to endure from “exhaustion because of the excessive temperatures.”
The Related Press reported that some journey businesses could not have formally registered for the pilgrimage, to get across the excessive prices of package deal excursions. And, The A.P. stated, corporations had been being blamed for letting pilgrims journey to Saudi Arabia on private visas, fairly than hajj visas that would have allowed them entry to medical care and the holy websites.
Mahmoud Qassem, a member of Egypt’s Parliament, stated the journey corporations “left the pilgrims stranded and turned off their cell phones” so they may not hear the vacationers’ requires assist.
There have been additionally complaints that pilgrims weren’t given entry to sufficient cooling stations or water amid the extraordinary warmth.
The variety of unregistered guests — along with the extraordinary desert warmth — might have left Saudi Arabia unprepared for coping with such a big inflow of individuals.
Tunisia’s authorities has stated that the dying toll of pilgrims from that nation was anticipated to rise from the 49 reported on Friday, because the variety of folks touring on vacationer visas grew to become extra clear.
The hajj has been the location of a number of tragedies, together with a stampede in 2015 that killed greater than 2,200 folks. Lately, with rising temperatures, many pilgrims have additionally succumbed to warmth stress.
The Saudi authorities has stated that in this 12 months’s hajj greater than 1.8 million Muslims traveled to Mecca, 1.6 million of them from outdoors Saudi Arabia.
Hager Al-Hakeem contributed reporting from Luxor, Egypt.
