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Indonesia, S.Arabia immigration strive for safer, efficient haj travel
The Immigration Directorate General is cooperating with its Saudi Arabian counterpart to improve passport verification for people intending to go on the haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia by making the process meticulous and efficient.
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he Immigration Directorate General is cooperating with its Saudi Arabian counterpart to improve passport verification for people intending to go on the haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia by making the process meticulous and efficient.
The directorate general expressed its intentions during a meeting in Jakarta on July 5.
Indonesian immigration is preparing to adopt a new immigration verification system called Border Control Management (BCM), which also features the directorate general’s official stamp.
Immigration Directorate General traffic director Cucu Koswala explained that his team was also preparing a newer, more meticulous standard operational procedure (SOP) for passport verification to guarantee travelers’ safety. To verify travelers’ identity in a more careful manner, the new SOP will apply a two-tier passport verification process before departure.
“First, we will stamp the pilgrims’ passports at the haj departure gate. Before they board the airplanes, we will verify their passports once more to make sure the documents match the pilgrims’ true identities,” he said
Cucu added that his office also continued to raise pilgrims’ awareness on how to carry their passports carefully during their travels. Pilgrims needed to be reminded that they had to be aware of where they kept their passports at all times to avoid the document from being left behind or neglected, he said.
“There have been incidents where pilgrims were denied entry to Saudi Arabia because they had left their passports behind. As a consequence, they had to be deported [back to Indonesia],” he said.
The directorate general has finished issuing the passports for all haj pilgrims departing this year.
Immigration is also working to make haj travel more efficient by establishing special biometric stations for travelers across several airports in a number of select provinces in Indonesia.
The office has designated stations for pilgrims across different airports in Aceh, Medan in North Sumatra, Padang in West Sumatra, Palembang in South Sumatra, Batam, Jakarta, Bekasi in West Java, Surakarta in Central Java, Surabaya in East Java, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara.
The special stations are also available in a number of transit gates in airports across Gorontalo in North Sulawesi, Lampung in Sumatra, Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan, Jambi and Bengkulu – both of which are located in Sumatra.
With the installment of the new biometric stations, instead of having their biometrics taken at the immigration gates of Saudi Arabia airports, starting this year, haj pilgrims can have their biometrics taken at the immigration gates of Indonesian airports instead. This seeks to help pilgrims avoid long lines in Saudi Arabian airports, where they have to wait for their turn along with pilgrims from other countries.
According to Immigration Director General Ronny F. Sompie, for the time being, the process will take place in only the above mentioned 13 haj pilgrim departure gates and five transit gates across select Indonesian airports. The directorate general seeks to make the service available nationwide in the future.
Employees from both Indonesian and Saudi Arabia immigration offices will be present at each gate of the Indonesian airports to take biometrics and verify their travel documents, according to Ronny.
“This could help overcome the long lines that the pilgrims usually have to face [in Saudi Arabia airports] to verify their documents. Typically, the pilgrims have to wait in line for four to five hours at Saudi Arabia immigration gates [along with pilgrims from other countries],” he explained.
To help Indonesian pilgrims avoid such long lines in Saudi Arabia airports, the immigration offices are cooperating to set up a pilot project whereby the pilgrims could get their Saudi Arabia immigration gate arrival stamp in Indonesia.
“The pilot project will take place at the immigration gate of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. Should this pilot project be successful, we will expand it to all international departure gates across airports nationwide,” Ronny asserted.
With the Saudi Arabia immigration office employees also on duty in Indonesian airports, haj pilgrims will no longer have to go through the hassles associated with passport verification once they arrive in the country, allowing them to conveniently head straight to their accommodations.
