That is the number of candidates to travel to Haxhi from Kosovo

The general secretary of the Islamic Community in Kosovo, Resul Rexhepi, has announced that all preparations for going to Hadge have already been made, such as contracting with the avio-transport agency, providing hotels for the stay in Mecca and Medina, vaculation of haji candidates, as well as all the payments necessary for obtaining visas.

He announced that only obtaining visas now remains from the delegation of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs within days.

Rexhepi announced that the entire expedition from Kosovo to Haxhi consists of 1079 hackers, out of them 37 of the team's leading groups, 3 leading leaders, as well as 8 doctors from the health team.

Noting that this number in the past year has been 860, divided by four groups, Rexhepi indicated that this year 1079 hackers have been divided into five groups and that they will travel 5 planes from Pristina to Mecca, Gidde and return from Medina to Pristina.

The first “Avion of Kosovo hacker candidates will leave in the late hours of August 19th, two on the 20th, and the fourth and fifth plane on 21st August. Their return will take place on September 16th-17th,”, Rexhepi reported.

BIK secretary announced that the youngest candidate to be the pilgrimage, this year, is born in 1999, the oldest in 1931, meanwhile.

As for the price, Rexhepi announced it is the same as the previous years -- 3400 euros -- but it is hard to guarantee that price in the years to come.

According to him, it is because of two new obligations that were not required before - the payment of tents in Arafat worth 300 euros - and the payment of 500 euros required for the pilgrimages, which were one or two years ago and wanted to go again.

“We've made payments to the tents in Arafat, everything would have been fine if we had already been notified about this, because in the count of transports and all other expenses, we haven't calculated this 300 euros to Araphat. This payment, which wasn't required before, has weighed us heavily, while another issue that has surprised us is that if any pilgrimage was even last year or two years ago, it would have to pay an additional 500 euros”, Rexhepi says.

On the other hand, Saudi Arabia authorities have announced that in Medina so far alone, over 300 thousand hajis from different parts of the world have arrived and that their number increases daily.

According to the announcement, some of the hackers have traveled to Mecca after completing their visits to Medina. / AA/