Staff Reporter :
All Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims will be able to complete their immigration process for Saudi Arabia at Ashkona Hajj Camp in Dhaka from 2020, State Minister for Religious Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah said on Sunday.
For this, he also directed the authorities concerned to take necessary steps for the expansion and renovation of the Hajj camp.
The state minister gave the directives while presiding over a meeting on ‘the extension and renovation activities of Ashokona Hajj Camp’ yesterday.
Abdullah said that the number of Bangladeshi pilgrims has increased steadily since 2009 due to the increase in the economic capacity of the people. The number of Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims was 58,628 in 2009, while the number has eased to 126,923 in 2019.
This year, he said, half of the hajj pilgrims completed their immigration for Saudi Arabia part in Dhaka, instead of Jeddah, under the Saudi government’s ‘Makkah Initiative’ programme’
All Hajj pilgrims will be brought under this programme in 2020, the Religious Affairs Ministry said in a news release.
The state minister also said that as the number of pilgrims will increase in the coming years, such activities would increase as well. So, it is necessary to undertake activities related to the expansion and reforms of the Hajj camp.
He said that a total of 366 Hajj flights were operated in 2019. Hajj pilgrims who went to Saudi through the Saudi Airlines Hajj flights under the ‘Makkah Route Initiative’ had faced harassment with baggage and immigration.
Therefore, a plan has been made to complete immigration for Bangladesh part of all Hajj pilgrims at Ashkona Hajj Camp in 2020, he said.
