ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Nearly 12,000 people in the Kurdistan Region have applied for a chance to perform the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage, an official told The New Region on Saturday.

The window for applications opened on July 21, and roughly 3,000 people have been registering every day since, Karwan Stuni, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Region’s Hajj and Umra directorate said.

He added that the figure is expected to reach around 75,000 applicants by the end of the application period on August 5.

Hajj is a pilgrimage to the sacred Saudi city of Mecca made by Muslims, where participants perform rituals over multiple days to cleanse their souls and strengthen their faith. It is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Despite the large number of Hajj hopefuls, only around 5,000 people can travel through the official government process each year. The Kurdistan Region is expected to send 5,120 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia in 2026, Stuni noted.

Last year, a total of 5,136 pilgrims from the Kurdistan Region visited Saudi Arabia to perform the sacred Islamic journey, up from 4,685 people in 2024.

Thirteen pilgrims from the Kurdistan Region died while performing the Hajj pilgrimage in 2024, with over half of the victims not possessing official pilgrimage permits. The scorching heat emerged as the primary factor contributing to these fatalities.