Airport Procedures for ‘HAJJ’ Pilgrims
As over 500 Pilgrims from Sierra Leone are expected to arrive on board Royal Air Maroc (RAM) next week for this year’s pilgrim in the holy city of Mecca, the Sierra Leone Embassy in Saudi Arabia has been in constant touch with the airport authorities to know the procedures that awaits our pilgrims.
According to the Director General of the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Mazen Khashoggi,the Airport and the Jeddah Islamic Port are the two principal points through which pilgrims enter and leave the Kingdom after performing the Hajj.
According to the Director General, the following awaits pilgrims on arrival.
1. The pilgrim is taken to a holding bay/waiting area immediately after he or she lands at the airport.
2. Maktab Al-Wukala staffs (also known as handling agents) attach a set of 10 bar codes to his or her passport. This is a unique code for each pilgrim.
3. The pilgrim goes through health checks. He or she is checked for swine flu and temperature is taken.
4. The pilgrim is taken to the immigration counter and gets fingerprinted and photographed. The bar code is electronically attached to his or her visa and passport details. One of the 10 bar codes is pasted near the Saudi visa sheet. The other nine stickers are used by other Haj agencies.
5. The Haji then goes to the luggage area and proceeds through customs.
6. Once the pilgrim is out, the next step is to go to the Haj Ministry counter. They take another bar code sticker to help ascertain how many pilgrims have arrived in the country at any given time.
7. The pilgrims collect bus tickets from the Maktab Al-Wukala counter for their onward journey to Makkah and/or Madinah.
8. Now just two steps away from leaving the airport, the pilgrim waits for the Transport Syndicate to announce the buses’ departure to Makkah. The transport of pilgrims to Makkah and Madinah is provided by two main bodies: the General Car Syndicate and the Office of Guides. Representatives from the United Agents’ Office will guide the pilgrims to their buses, which take them to the Pilgrims’ Grouping Center near Makkah.
The General Car Syndicate has 19,500 buses this year to provide transport for pilgrims between Jeddah, Makkah, the Holy Sites and Madinah. Of these, 340 new buses costing SR136 million are in service for the first time. The vehicles transporting pilgrims are monitored electronically through GPS so that their exact locations are known in order to provide help if required.
9. The pilgrim boards one of the buses assisted by his country’s Haj mission staff. They ensure pilgrims belonging to one particular Haj organizer are grouped together.
10. Once on the bus, the pilgrims hand over their passports to their guide, who leaves them with the Tawafa Establishment or muallim once he arrives at Makkah or Madinah. The passport stays with the muallim during the rest of the pilgrim’s stay in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Guinea and Gambia Embassies in Riyadh have confirmed the arrival of some of their Pilgrims, while others are reported to be arriving in the next few days.
Alhaji M.B. Jalloh, Information Attach̩/ Public Affairs Unit, Sierra Leone Embassy, Riyadh РKingdom of Saudi Arabia
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