Makkah Route InitiativeLast Bangladeshi pilgrims depart for Hajj

Saudi immigration official welcomes Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims departing from Dhaka under the Makkah Route initiative

Bangladesh has completed its special Hajj flight operations, with the final pilgrims leaving Dhaka on Wednesday to join tens of thousands of others who have already arrived in the Kingdom of Saudi.

Bangladeshis will be among 2 million Muslims arriving in Makkah and Madinah for this year’s pilgrimage.

The main Hajj rituals will be performed on June 15.

“A total of 84,867 (Bangladeshi pilgrims) have reached Saudi Arabia to perform the holy Hajj this year,” Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh, told Arab News.

Special flights to Saudi Arabia from Dhaka began on May 10 and the first return flights for Bangladeshi pilgrims are scheduled for June 21.

Most of the pilgrims have departed under the Makkah Route initiative — the Kingdom’s flagship program launched in 2019 to streamline immigration procedures for the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam.

The initiative is currently available to pilgrims from seven Muslim-majority countries: Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire.

Saudi immigration officers who arrived in Bangladesh under the Makkah Route initiative to facilitate the journey for pilgrims have been assisting them round the clock since last month.

“All of them are extremely cordial, well-mannered, and helpful. They are doing their best to ease the journey of the pilgrims. It’s an excellent team,” Taslim said.

“I am amazed seeing the wholehearted efforts of these Saudi immigration officials. I experienced cordial support in every step of their work at the Bangladeshi airport. They do the job in a faster way. It took only a couple of seconds for the pilgrims to have their Saudi immigration done.”

To ease the process for pilgrims with disabilities, immigration officials equipped with tablets offer direct assistance, meaning wheelchair users have no need to queue.

“The officials brought the tablet to the pilgrims to complete the immigration formalities instead of taking the pilgrims to the service counters,” Taslim said.

“They are doing a lot to provide the highest-level services. Our pilgrims were very happy experiencing this.”