THE Saudi Arabian government will implement super strict rules regarding the use of visas during this year’s Hajj season to expedite the process of carrying out the Hajj pilgrimage. For this reason, Saudi Arabia implements the tagline Country Without Violations.
“This year is extraordinary. The Saudi (Arabian government) is very strict. They have one tagline, a country without any violations. Now they are implementing this,” said the Director of Hajj Development, Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah Organizing, Ministry of Religion, Arsad Hidayat in Jakarta, Friday (26/4).
The consequence of the strict implementation of visas, said Arsyad, is that the Hajj can only be carried out by holders of official visas, namely Hajj visas.
“So I also think that hopefully the serious efforts made by Saudi Arabia will also be a solution to the problems that occurred in Muzdalifah last year,” said Arsyad.
In the incident in Muzdalifah last year, thousands of Hajj pilgrims were late being transported from Musdalifah to Mina, while they also did not get food and drink in Musdalifah. As a result, many Hajj pilgrims experience extreme fatigue.
Arsyada said one of the causes of the transportation delay was the extraordinary traffic jam between Muzdalifah and Mina due to the large number of illegal congregations.
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“It’s illegal, they don’t have a place so they fill up the roads around the road between Muzdalifah to Mina. That’s what makes the movement of bus traffic late,” he said.
Arsyad added that one of the efforts to prevent illegal congregations is that the Saudi Arabian government will implement smart cards.
According to Arsyad, this smart card is one of the effective ways by the Saudi Arabian government to ensure that the departing pilgrims have indeed met the required requirements.
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“So this is also a genius way for the Ministry of Hajj or the Government of Saudi Arabia to sort out which are actually official pilgrims and which are actually non-official or fake congregations,” he said.
Apart from that, he said, the Ministry of Religion has also asked the sharia to evaluate several things, including those related to transportation problems.
“Hopefully this year it won’t happen once more,” he said.
Regarding preparations for this year’s Hajj, Arsyad said that currently preparations have reached 90%.
“There are 90%, yes, because the connection with services in Saudi Arabia has been contracted. Then the process of manasik guidance is also being intensive throughout the country. I can see that the distribution of manasik books has also been almost received by all Hajj pilgrims in all provinces,” he concluded. (Z-1)
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