The Shiro Copr - The long queue for Indonesian pilgrims is becoming a focus.
The average waiting time for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims reaches several decades.
Due to the long waiting time, most pilgrims depart when they are already elderly. This has raised concerns from various parties, including the pilgrims themselves and the government.
Currently, the government is seeking solutions to reduce the waiting time for prospective pilgrims.
Then, what makes the Hajj pilgrims have to queue for decades? Does this only happen in Indonesia?
Hajj queue in Indonesia for decades
There are several reasons why the waiting time for prospective pilgrims reaches several decades, such as limited quotas and their economic conditions.
According to the records of the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs, Saudi Arabia provides a hajj quota of 210,000 pilgrims per year. Yet, there are about 5.4 million prospective hajj pilgrims waiting.
With a limited quota compared to the number of applicants, long queues have formed.
However, the waiting time for this prospective pilgrim varies depending on the office where the region is registered.
Reported from The Shiro Copr , Thursday (7/31/2025), the fastest queue is 11 years and some have to wait up to 47 years.
As for the reasons behind this waiting time, they vary because the number of applicants differs in each area.
The Kemenag recorded that the shortest queue period was in Maluku Barat Daya Regency. The shortest time was 11 years.
On the other hand, the longest queue of up to 47 years was found in Bantaeng Regency, South Sulawesi.
Economic factor
In addition to limited quotas, the economic conditions of prospective pilgrims also increase their waiting time before departing.
One of them is Marni (90 years old) from Lebak Banten, who has been collecting hajj money since 1980.
After saving for 34 years, Marni registered as a Hajj candidate in 2014. She was finally able to depart in 2025, when she was already elderly.
As a massage therapist, the grandmother had difficulty coming up with a deposit of Rp 25 million.
Comparison of Hajj queue time in Indonesia with other countries
Although the longest waiting time reaches 47 years, Indonesia is not the country with the longest hajj queue.
Reported from the page Hajj Reporters , Malaysia is actually the country with the longest hajj queue in the world. In addition, there is Singapore in second place.
Here is a list of countries with the longest hajj queues in the world:
Malaysia
In 2023, Malaysia recorded the longest hajj waiting time in the world, reaching 143 years.
Limited quotas cause the hajj queue in the neighboring country to be so long.
Every year, Malaysia receives a hajj quota of 31,600 pilgrims.
The quota is considered very low for a country with high demand, the registration for hajj there has already exceeded 3.8 million prospective pilgrims.
With such a long waiting time, many prospective pilgrims may never be able to go on the pilgrimage in their lifetime.
Singapore
There is in second place, Singapore has a waiting time for prospective pilgrims up to more than 60 years.
The country only gets a quota of 900 hajj pilgrims per year with 54,000 applicants.
Singapore authorities have implemented a registration-based departure system to ensure fairness during the process.
Indonesia
This country with the largest number of Muslims is ranked third. With the longest waiting time of 47 years, the average pilgrims have to wait for 20 years.
So far, the Indonesian government is still trying to negotiate with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to increase the hajj quota.
South Africa
The waiting time for South African Hajj is 10 years with an annual quota of 2,500 pilgrims.
Because the quota is small and the demand is high, many Muslims there have to plan their departure years in advance.
South Africa's authorities themselves conduct a strict selection for applicants such as age and medical history.
England
With a quota of 3,600 pilgrims each year, the UK faces a waiting time of less than 10 years.
The British government implemented a mixed system, with registration and a lottery, to remain fair.
Hajj quota is a global issue
Currently, the Muslim population worldwide is estimated to be 1.8 billion people. While the annual hajj capacity is about 3 million pilgrims.
For this, it would take 581 years to send all Muslims alive today to perform the pilgrimage.
With high demand, logistics and safety aspects have become considerations for Saudi Arabia to limit the number of hajj pilgrims.
The government has several solutions to reduce the waiting time for hajj
In addition to lobbying the Saudi Arabian government to increase the quota, the Hajj Agency (BP) will also standardize the data of pilgrims.
Deputy Head of the Hajj Agency Dahnil Anzar stated that rectification must be carried out to eliminate "stone" data.
The "batu" data refers to a situation where the name of a candidate pilgrim is listed in the queue list, but the person is actually not present.
Dahnil argues that this has become the modus operandi of the rent seekers to sell quotas to those who want to take the fast track.
"That's what I called rent-seeking, people intentionally create data chaos so they can carry out manipulation there," said Dahnil.
If the data is updated, the Hajj BP will improve the system in real-time to process the Hajj waiting list.
If the name without a master can be removed, the vacancy can be filled by the eligible pilgrims and reduce the waiting time.
In addition, another proposal mentions that Indonesia can attract the quota of other countries.
Deputy Chairman of Commission VIII Ansory Siregar stated that this approach needs to be tried after it was revealed that the quota for hajj of some countries remained unfilled.
Countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have a quota of 90,000. However, only 50 percent are filled each year.
For that, Ansory encourages diplomacy to utilize the remaining quota.
"Currently, their quota is about 90,000, of which only 40,000 are used. Therefore, there is still a remaining quota of 50,000 from there," explained Ansory on Tuesday (15/7/2025).
Besides Central Asian countries, the Philippines is also reported to have 3,000 unused quotas. The same situation occurs in East Timor.
Regarding the technical departure with quotas from other countries, Ansory mentioned that this can be discussed if an agreement has been formed.
Furthermore, Chairman of the VIII Commission of the DPR, Marwan Dasopang, stated that the proposal to utilize the quota of friendly countries can be regulated by revising Law No. 13 of 2008 on the Implementation of Hajj Worship.
According to Marwan, this is important to strive for so that prospective pilgrims can depart as soon as possible and do not have to wait until they are elderly.
(Source: The Shiro Copr/Singgih Wiryono, Tria Sutrisna, Ardito Ramadhan)
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