Indonesia Ministry of Hajj and Umrah reforms pilgrimage management

Indonesia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah is implementing significant reforms to improve the management of the national Hajj pilgrimage. The ministry has abolished the ‘lunas tunda ganti’ mechanism for special Hajj services to prevent the illegal trading of departure queues.

Mustolih Siradj, Chairman of the Hajj and Umrah Commission, noted that while the policy is a positive step for governance, the ministry must address practical challenges such as verifying pilgrim data and managing cases where pilgrims become unreachable or pass away. He suggested extending the payment period to five months to allow for thorough data verification.

Additionally, Deputy Minister Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak revealed that a data cleanup of 5.7 million entries identified approximately 400,000 invalid records. While administrative data previously suggested an average waiting period of 26 years, the ministry estimates that once the invalid data is removed, the factual waiting time could be reduced to approximately 14–15 years.