Thousands of pilgrims may miss Hajj

Thousands of intending pilgrims, from all over the country, are likely to miss the forthcoming Hajj, as only urgent passports are being issued to applicants by the concerned department. In line with the Saudi government's directive, the intending pilgrims will have to arrange Machine Readable Passport (MRP).
But four out of the eight printers installed for printing passports, by the Directorate of Passport and Immigration, are out of order for the last many months. As a result, the directorate is issuing urgent passports, while there are 100,000 ordinary passports pending, reliable sources told APP.
According to official sources, "The directorate is issuing 8,000 to 10,000 urgent passports daily, while ordinary passport are not being processed, since the demand of MRPs has tremendously increased." However, more than 160,000 intending pilgrims will be airlifted to Saudi Arabia for Haj, who will be using Machine Readable Passport as travel documents.
The banks have already started receiving applications from intending pilgrims, while the last date for accepting applications is July 11. As the balloting date has been fixed on August 6, there are only forty days for the applicants to arrange for their passports, which normally takes two weeks.
Those who already have international passports would be included in the balloting through the number of their passports. Those who have applied, and not yet got their passports, would be included in the balloting, on the photocopy of the receipt of their application.
Even those who have extended the Hajj application, sans fulfilling the above two provisions, would be included in the balloting, on the condition that they would have to produce their passport within four days of the balloting, if they are successful. Otherwise, they would be declared unsuccessful.
If this phenomenon is allowed to go unabated, with the concerned authorities unable to issue the passports to the applicants in time, a large number of intending pilgrims may miss the forthcoming Hajj. It may be mentioned here that before the restriction of using Machine Readable Passports, the Ministry of Religious Affairs was responsible for issuing passports to the intending pilgrims selected for Hajj, for which the required machinery had been installed within the premises of the ministry.