Well before the formal Haj rites began a week ago, some shops and restaurants refused service to visitors who could not show permits on the official Haj app, known as Nusuk.
Once the long days of walking and praying beneath the blazing sun got underway, he could not access official Haj buses – the only transportation around the holy sites – without paying exorbitant, off-the-books fees.
When heat drove him to exhaustion, he sought urgent care at a hospital in Mina but was turned away, he said, again for lack of a permit.
As their conditions worsened, Yasser and his wife Safaa lost each other in the crowds during the “stoning the devil” ritual in Mina.
Since then Yasser has repeatedly postponed their return flight home, hoping she will turn up.
“I will keep postponing it until I find her,” he said.
