Acting Director General of Immigration at the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, Yuldi Yusman, explained that the Makkah Route program enables pilgrims to complete passport and visa checks before departing Indonesia, thereby eliminating the need for these procedures upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.
“The Makkah Route is a form of immigration checkpoint in advance, where Saudi immigration officers conduct inspections directly at the departure airports in Indonesia,” Yusman noted in a statement received in Jakarta on Friday.
With the Makkah Route, Indonesian pilgrims can focus on their pilgrimage as soon as they arrive in the Holy Land. Currently, the program operates at three major embarkation points: Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Juanda Airport in Surabaya, and Adi Soemarmo Airport in Surakarta.
Yusman noted that at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, which serves the Jakarta-Bekasi embarkation area, 61 pilgrimage groups, comprising 26,606 pilgrims, were processed through 13 immigration counters.
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Meanwhile, Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java, handles 97 groups with a total of 36,809 pilgrims across seven immigration counters. Adi Soemarmo Airport in Surakarta, Central Java, serves 94 groups totaling 33,806 pilgrims, also processed through seven counters.
According to Yusman, the number of Indonesian pilgrims in 2025 totaled 221 thousand, meaning the Makkah Route has served approximately 44 percent of them.
He expressed hope that, in the future, the Directorate General of Immigration and the Saudi Immigration Authority would expand the Makkah Route to cover all Hajj embarkation points in Indonesia.
“Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), the Makkah Route has been running smoothly, and many people welcome this program, especially elderly pilgrims and those with disabilities. The immigration process from departure to return has been smooth and comfortable,” Yusman stated.
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Translator: Fath Putra Mulya, Kuntum Khaira Riswan
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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