As of Monday nearly 580,000 pilgrims have arrived at the Haj terminal at King Abdul Aziz International Airport here, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah, announced Monday. He added that this number represented 50,000 more pilgrims than had arrived by the same date last year despite the fear that people might refrain from performing Haj this year because of the swine flu pandemic. Prince Khaled made the statement during his inspection tour of the new projects at the Haj terminal Monday. “All these preparations have been made by the government for only one reason, the comfort of pilgrims,” said Prince Khaled. “Pilgrims now spend less than half as much time on passport and customs procedures as they used to in past years,” he added. He said that the terminal crews are larger than they were in the past and they are offering more services for pilgrims. The prince handed out gifts to arriving Indonesian pilgrims and then inspected the preparations made by the Ministry of Health. “As the Minister of Health assured us on Saturday, all the pilgrims are healthy and no health problems have arisen,” said Prince Khaled. The prince warned that action, including serious penalties, will be taken against those smuggling local pilgrims into the holy sites without licenses.
