The religious affairs ministry has sought the home ministry’s permission to use data and fingerprints of those passport holders who intend to perform hajj this year so as to fulfil the requirements of the Saudi Arabian government.
The Saudi Arabian authorities introduced fingerprints for hajj pilgrims to ensure security, as several Islamic fundamentalist groups are destabilising many Middle Eastern countries with their militant activities. The secretary in-charge of the religious affairs ministry, Md. Abdul Jalil, sent a letter yesterday to the home ministry’s senior secretary, seeking its permission to use the data and fingerprints to preclude unnecessary delays of pilgrims at Jeddah airport in Saudi Arabia during the upcoming Hajj season, sources in the ministry said.
The Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), under the home ministry, has stored the data and fingerprints of the passport holders.
According to the agreements signed between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, it is mandatory to send pilgrims’ fingerprints to the Saudi authorities. The fingerprints would be examined at the entry point of the airport for entering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
“Those whose fingerprints do not match during check-out would not get clearance to enter the country. It takes around five hours to normally complete the check-out procedure at the Jeddah airport. During the Hajj period, there will be a rush at the airport. As a result, it would take more than 16 hours to complete the procedures,” Abdul Jalil told The Independent.
He said, “We want to preclude unnecessary trouble for the pilgrims. We want to send the fingerprints of the pilgrims to the Saudi government so that they can easily enter that country after completing all procedures during the Hajj.”
“If the home ministry allows us to use the fingerprints, it would be easy for us to complete the procedures. Otherwise, the religious affairs ministry would have to take fresh fingerprints of the pilgrims, after buying new fingerprint devices. We hope the home ministry will give us permission,” he added.
He further added that the process would be completed by this June, as completion of all the procedures of Hajj this year is a time-bound matter.
When asked about the unregistered quota of the pilgrims, Abdul Jalil said the quota would be filled from among those additional pilgrims who have completed preregistration earlier. The private management pilgrims’ quota would be filled up from among the preregistered pilgrims,
he added.
For pilgrims in the unregistered quota under government management, these would be filled up with those preregistered pilgrims who intend to perform hajj under government management after cancelling their private registrations, Jalil said.
They will be given time to change their preregistration by this June, he added.
“At the same, the ministry will also seek the Saudi Arabian government’s permission to allocate the government management unregistered quota to the private hajj agencies. If they permit transfer of the quota under private management, that will also be given,” the secretary said.
He also disclosed that there was no scope of getting any additional quota this year, as the Saudi government wants to reduce the quota of pilgrims because of the recent renovation of the Hajj ground and nearby places of Masjid al-Ḥarām.
Bangladesh has been allocated a quota of 1,01,758 pilgrims this year. Of this quota, around 8,000 pilgrims still remain unregistered, thanks to some technical and procedural problems.