Youcef Azouza to Echorouk: “The elderly and the sick will be barred from future Hadj pilgrimages!”

The General Manager of the Office of the Hajj and Umrah, Mr Youcef Azouza, has disclosed in an exclusive statement to “Echorouk” that the 2015 Hajj pilgrimage edition witnessed an unprecedented hike in the number of pilgrims affected by various mental illnesses, or in other words mere “lunatics” who contived through devious means to make the travel to the holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia.

This untoward phenomenon occurred despite the drastic deterrent measures taken by those in charge of this sector to prevent a repeat of this adverse scenario, but numerous mentally-deranged pilgrims, helped by their next of kin, shunned thorough medical supervision and fabricated testimonies with some doctors’ complacency in order to get the official clearance for the 2015 Hadj pilgrimage to the Holy places of Islam despite their debilitating heath disorders.

The  Director-General of the Office of Hajj and Umrah affirmed to this effect that the Algerian mission and its medical staff sent to Saudi Arabia grappled this year with many such cases, which compelled them to intervene and to place these mentally-deranged pilgrims under medical observation in Saudi health facilities waiting to expedite their return to their homeland.

As a result of these negative repercussions, Mr Youcef Azouza said that the Hadj and Umrah Office would convey a proposal to the ministry of religious affairs and endowments whereby all the elderly and the sick wouldn’t be eligible anymore to perform the future Hadj pilgrimages in the holy places of Islam for preventive health purposes.

This comes at a time when the number of deaths among Algerian pilgrims at the holy sites in Saudi Arabia rose to 10 cases, according to official sources from the foreign affairs ministry.