With only three days left for the official end of the Haj season, the Kingdom's airports, seaports and land borders are witnessing a rush of pilgrims departing for their home countries. The authorities have set Muharram 15 (Thursday, Oct. 29) as the official end of the pilgrimage season. The pilgrims who remain in the Kingdom after this date will be considered as overstayers and dealt with according to the laws and regulations of residency. According to Al-Watan daily on Sunday, as many as 525,483 pilgrims have so far left Madinah through the airport and land borders after praying at the Prophet's Mosque. A total of 322,661 pilgrims had departed through Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madinah until Sunday while 167,517 left for Jeddah to depart through King Abdul Aziz International Airport (KAIA) and 35,305 left for their home countries through land borders. Mohammed Al-Bijawi, director of the Haj Ministry's branch in Madinah, said 562,880 pilgrims had arrived in Madinah after Haj. Some 550,003 pilgrims arrived in Madinah by road from Makkah and were received at the Hijrah reception center while 111,000 were received at the center for land pilgrims. Bijawi said the departure of pilgrims for their home countries is proceeding smoothly according to the ministry's operational plan. Meanwhile, Makkah daily reported on Sunday that 25 days after the pilgrims left the holy sites, mounds of garbage are still covering large parts of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah. A number of Makkah residents complained to the municipality about this and said the holy sites were not cleaned properly. Saeed Al-Sharif, a Makkah resident, said they have fears that the holy sites may be left unclean until the next year's Haj. However, Osama Zaitouni, head of the municipality's department of information and public relations, noted that the municipality was continuing the cleaning operation of the holy sites in phases and that the entire area will be cleaned soon. "There will be no garbage left in the holy sites," he said. He, however, did not say when the cleaning operation will be completed.
