Over one million Muslims in the country are on the waiting list to perform the haj as at Nov 30, the Dewan Negara was told today.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Dr Mashitah Ibrahim said pilgrims were selected based on the date and time of their haj registration.

“Tabung Haji adopts an open registration system in which depositors who meet the conditions will be accepted for haj registration. In another word, it is based on first-come first-served basis,” she said when responding to a question from Senator Muhamad Yusof Husin.

Mashitah said 1,039,691 Muslims were on the haj registration list to date while the haj quota given by the Saudi Arabian government from 2008 to 2010 was 26,000 pilgrims yearly and 27,900 pilgrims in 2011 and 2012.

She said as more and more Muslims registered for haj, Tabung Haji had introduced additional conditions to enable first timers to go first by not allowing those who had performed the haj to register again within five years, and giving priority to those above 75 years if there were vacancies.

In addition, Tabung Haji will not allow children below 15 to go except under certain circumstances, she added.

She said as Saudi Arabia was restricting pilgrimage visas to about 0.1 percent of the population of a country, Malaysia would continue to appeal for an additional quota yearly.

“Massive redevelopment of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina is putting a strain on pilgrim accommodations,” she added.

- Bernama