RIYADH — The Ministry of Interior expanded the "Makkah Route" initiative to Turkey and Ivory Coast for this year. The initiative will now serve in seven countries including Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco and Bangladesh since launching the initiative for the first time in 2019. The Ministry said that the "Makkah Route" initiative aims to receive the pilgrims and complete their procedures from their countries with ease. It starts with issuing the visa electronically and taking the vital characteristics, and then passing through the complete passport procedures at the airport of the country of departure after verifying the availability of health requirements. Also, the procedures include coding and sorting pilgrims' luggage to send to their place of residency in the Kingdom. Upon their arrival, they move directly to buses to take them to their places of residence in Makkah and Madinah, with designated paths, while the service authorities deliver their luggage to their place of residency. The Ministry implements the initiative in cooperation with the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health, Hajj and Umrah, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority "SDAIA", "Doyof (Guests) Al Rahman Program", one of the Saudi Vision 2030 executive programs, and the General Directorate of Passports.
