New equipment makes pre-departure process even faster than in 2023 Saudi officials are working round the clock to assist Bangladeshi pilgrims DHAKA: Bangladeshi pilgrims welcomed on Friday the updated Hajj immigration procedures under the Makkah Route initiative, which this year is even smoother than in 2023. This year, Hajj is expected to start on June 14, and special pilgrimage flights from Dhaka began on May 10. Most pilgrims are departing under the flagship pre-travel program, which was launched by the Kingdom in 2019 to help pilgrims meet all the visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin and save them long hours of waiting before and upon arrival in Saudi Arabia. The immigration processes have been constantly updated to streamline the procedures and accuracy of delivering the pilgrims’ luggage straight to their hotels in Makkah and Madinah. This year, new software and hardware were added, making it even faster than in 2023, Turki Al-Zahrani, an official from the Saudi immigration department overseeing the operations at Dhaka airport, told Arab News “This year, from Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport in the capital, Dhaka, we have the latest technologies,” he said. “There is no need to wait in the airport.” Pilgrims appreciated the way the facility was organized at the airport as they readied to board their flights to the Kingdom. “The Makkah Route initiative has excellent management,” said Dr. Mohammed Saiful Islam, professor at Jahurul Islam Medical College. “We are so happy.” Saudi Arabia granted Bangladesh a quota of 127,000 pilgrims to perform the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam, but due to high airfares to the Middle East, only about 83,000 will be able to travel. So far, over 51,400 of the pilgrims have reached Saudi Arabia since the start of the special Hajj flights. For Sabina Ahmed, a homemaker from Gopibag in Dhaka, who was flying to the Kingdom on Friday, the whole immigration procedure from the Saudi side took only a few seconds. “All the immigration formalities have been completed very smoothly. I felt really very good experiencing this,” she said. “The luggage management system was also, mashallah, very good … Everything went so smoothly that it was beyond imagination.” Amanur Rahman, a software engineer, who performed the pilgrimage also in 2016, said that under Makkah Route, everything was streamlined. “This is really amazing … Nowadays, it’s really easy, and it’s really comfortable for us,” he told Arab News. “Thanks to the Saudi government for giving us this kind of facility. We are really excited about this.” Saudi officers at the airport were working round the clock to make sure everything went well. Bangladeshi pilgrims noticed and welcomed the efforts. “We appreciate it,” Golam Mostofa Himel, a banker, said after processing his immigration documents. “It’s very easy and comfortable for us.”