During the first half of the holy month of Ramadan, 200,000 visitors and Umrah pilgrims visited the Prophet's Mosque in Madina. Muhammad Al-Bijawi, Director General of the Ministry of Haj branch in Madina, expects 250,000 visitors and Umrah pilgrims to visit Madina during the second half of the holy month. Al-Bijawi confirmed to SPA that the supervision and follow-up committees at the Ministry of Haj branch in Madina have been on hand since the arrival of the first Umrah pilgrim in Madina to monitor the services provided to pilgrims and to deal with any obstacles that they might face. The committees regularly send teams to visit the headquarters of Umrah companies and offices, and these visits have been increased during Ramadan to make sure that the required services are provided to pilgrims. Al-Bijawi said these teams have made more than 60,000 visits to the offices and hotels dealing with Umrah pilgrims and to the locations used for their departure since the beginning of the current Umrah season. Moreover, the subsidiary centers of the ministry's branch in the Central Area surrounding the Prophet's Mosque have provided 30,000 services to Umrah pilgrims and visitors, including guiding lost visitors, answering queries on locations and services, dealing with lost items and dealing with pilgrims' complaints. The director of Public Relations and Information at the Presidency of the Prophet's Mosque Affairs, said 40,000 Mutakifs are expected to be sitting in seclusion (Itikaf) in Haram for the rest of holy month. He said a program for Mutakifs has been completed and involves signing of an undertaking – written in Arabic, Urdu and English – that includes certain instructions such as not brining anything other than a pillow and a blanket inside the Haram, not hanging cloths on the mosque's walls and be committed to the location allocated for Mutakifs to the north of the latest expansion.
