Saudi Arabia: Thousands of Employees Harnessed to Serve Hajj Pilgrims

The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has concluded planning for the massive coordination work it launched in the beginning of June 2023 in preparation for the upcoming Hajj season, which officially commences on the Day of Arafat.

The Ministry’s operations include supervising and directing more than 250,000 employees from 47 different government and private sector agencies, who work in line with assigned roles and predetermined missions during the Hajj season.

The Ministry of Hajj is fulfilling the role it has been embracing for the past 50 years since 1972, during which it provided more than 95 million pilgrims with comfort and safety while embarking on their spiritual journey in the Kingdom.

With 121 services available online, 50 million Umrah permits issued, and 30 million beneficiaries serviced in 2023 alone, the Ministry is making every effort to fulfill the needs of devotee guests through harnessing its accumulated experience to facilitate Hajj and Umrah journeys.

Furthermore, around quarter of a million employees from both government and private entities are offering their services to the pilgrims within the Ministry’s scope of work which necessitates precise coordination with concerned authorities to manage large crowds and thus achieving the highest international quality standards.

Since 1993, the Hajj and Umrah Training Center has been coaching cadres and volunteers who wish to offer services to visitors of the holy sites, while the center managed to train at least 91,000 workers for the current Hajj season.

The Ministry’s unrivalled experience in striking harmony between concerned authorities clearly stood out on May 23, 2023, after the success of a simulation that included the supervision of at least 10,000 participants and the simultaneous grouping of 3,000 buses.

In his recent remarks, the Minister of Hajj Tawfiq Al Rabiah stressed the full readiness of his ministry during the current 2023 season and confirmed that the ministry can deal with sudden crisis, pointing out that the grouping simulation was conducted to test the extent of integration between the efficiency of the transportation system and the holy sites’ infrastructure.