The Saudi government has announced strict restrictions for seriously ill individuals wishing to perform Hajj 2026. Under a new policy, seriously ill pilgrims may be deported back to their home countries, with the cost of travel to be borne by the pilgrims themselves.

Sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs added that action will be taken against doctors who issue fitness certificates to individuals who do not meet the health requirements.

According to directives from the Saudi Ministry of Health regarding medical conditions for Hajj 2026, patients with kidney diseases or those undergoing dialysis will not be permitted to perform the pilgrimage.

Similarly, individuals with heart conditions that limit physical activity, advanced lung or liver diseases, and severe neurological or psychiatric illnesses—including memory impairment, dementia, or severe disabilities—will also be restricted.

Additionally, elderly individuals with serious age-related health conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease or epilepsy, will be barred from performing Hajj.

Pregnant women, as well as patients suffering from contagious diseases such as whooping cough, tuberculosis, or viral hemorrhagic fevers, will likewise not be allowed to participate in Hajj 2026.

Cancer patients have also been declared ineligible for Hajj. Medical officers will be authorised to prevent such individuals from travelling before departure.

Monitoring teams deployed by Saudi authorities will assess and verify the authenticity of each pilgrim’s fitness certificate.

• Embassy in Riyadh, Jeddah consulate assisting affected families.
• PM Modi expresses grief, prays for quick recovery of the injured.
• Millions visit kingdom for Umrah in addition to annual Hajj pilgrims.

RIYADH: The Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia on Monday said a “tragic” bus crash involving Muslim pilgrims occurred near the holy city of Madina overnight, with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi offering his condolences.

“Deeply saddened by the accident in Madina involving Indian nationals. My thoughts are with the families who have lost their loved ones,” the prime minister wrote on X.

“I pray for the swift recovery of all those injured. Our Embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Jeddah are providing all possible assistance,” he added.

Indian media reported dozens had potentially been killed in the incident, though officials have yet to provide a toll.

Millions visit Saudi Arabia for the Umrah pilgrimage, which happens outside of the Hajj period.

In March 2023, a bus ferrying pilgrims to the holy city of Makkah burst into flames after a collision on a bridge, killing 20 people and injuring more than two dozen others.

And in October 2019, some 35 foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near Madina.

Pilgrimages are an essential component of Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning tourism sector that officials hope will help diversify the kingdom’s economy away from fossil fuels.

The Gulf kingdom is also home to more than two million Indian nationals who have long played a pivotal role in its labour market, helping construct many of the country’s mega-projects while sending billions of dollars in remittances back home each year.

• “We have nothing to hide,” says President Donald Trump.
• He says its time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.
• Emails reveal that Epstein believed that Trump “knew about girls”. 

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.

Trump’s post on his Truth Social came after House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier that he believed a vote on releasing Justice Department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on Sunday night. “And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’.”

Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. 

Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.

Trump, who has recently dismissed the Epstein files as a Democratic smear campaign, has since instructed the Department of Justice to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.

The battle over disclosure of more Epstein-related documents, a subject Trump himself campaigned on, has opened a rift with some of his allies in Congress.

Many of Trump’s most loyal supporters believe the government is withholding sensitive documents about Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, that would reveal the late financier’s ties to powerful public figures.

Trump late on Friday withdrew his support for US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, long one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including the handling of the Epstein files.

US Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote on the files’ release, said on Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to vote in favour.

Republicans hold the majority in the House, with 219 seats, versus 214 for Democrats.