"The total additional officers is 200 people," Head of PPIH in Saudi Arabia Arsad Hidayat said as quoted from the Ministry of Religious Affairs' Hajj Media Center in Medina, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
He noted that additional Hajj officers will support the accommodation, transportation, consumption, and protection services for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims during the pilgrimage.
According to Hidayat, the additional officers will assist Indonesian pilgrims at the complex of the Great Mosque of Mecca, among other things, considering that Indonesian Hajj pilgrims often get separated from their group and forget their way back from the mosque to the hotel.
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Hidayat noted that the PPIH for the Mecca work area will receive more additional officers as compared to the Medina work area.
"It is because in Mecca, the services are most complex. Pilgrims from around the world will also gather in Mecca. If the pilgrims have gathered, it will be crowded, and it is connected to the catering, transportation services, and so on," he remarked.
Earlier, a total of 1,901 Hajj officers from PPIH were tasked with providing services to Indonesian Hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.
This year, Saudi Arabia has allowed one million pilgrims from various countries to perform the Hajj pilgrimage. Indonesia has been allotted a quota of 100,051 for the pilgrimage.
Although it has given permission for foreign pilgrims to perform Hajj, Saudi Arabia has laid down two conditions for them this year. First, pilgrims must not be older than 65 years and must have received the full dose of any COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Saudi Health Ministry.
Second, pilgrims traveling from abroad must carry a certificate showing a negative PCR result, with the test taken no more than 72 hours prior to departure.
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Translator: Desi Purnamawati, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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