Ministry Of Religion Says Departure Of The Initial COVID-19 Umrah Groups Needs Optimal Mitigation Strategies

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JAKARTA - The Director-General of Hajj and Umrah at the Indonesian Ministry of Religion, Hilman Latief, stated that the agenda for the departure of the first generation of Umrah pilgrims during the COVID-19 pandemic required an optimal mitigation strategy.

"We at the Ministry of Religion as a regulator in charge of protecting pilgrims must be careful in mitigating," said Hilman Latief in the "Forward and Backward Umrah Departure" dialogue event which was followed from YouTube Aktual Videonews in Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, December 21.

Hilman said that the initial generation of Umrah will guarantee the departure of more numbers in the future because it will test the control system for the departure of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages designed by the Governments of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

He said the agenda for the departure of Indonesian Umrah pilgrims, which was originally scheduled for December 23, 2021, had to be postponed again. This is to be aware of the spread of the Omicron variant from the overseas transmission.

"The concept is not a cancellation, but a retreat, especially the implementation of the one gate policy which is carried out for the departure of Umrah pilgrims," ​​he said.

One gate policy is a centralized Umrah departure control system. Later all the health checks, PCR swab tests, vaccination status checks, immigration, travel document processing, and congregational departure schemes will become one door under the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia.

He said the first departure must be prepared since December starting from data collection of pilgrims, payments, porters and other requirements must be ready.

"Mitigation in January must be properly prepared in order to test the system that we are going to do. Hopefully, we can send a small team that can study the situation in Saudi Arabia," he said.

Regarding the number of small teams that will be dispatched, Hilman referred to a number of other countries such as Malaysia which dispatched their congregations in stages, starting from 25 people in the first week, increased to 30 people in the following week, and so on.

"The amount is small but gradual," he said.

Hilman stated the government's commitment to maintain and encourage the economic ecosystem of Hajj and Umrah to continue to run optimally through policies set by the government.

"In the last two years, we have experienced various obstacles. We are trying to revive the economic ecosystem of Hajj and Umrah through diplomatic steps to convey the aspirations of the Indonesian people who long to perform Umrah," he said.

Diplomatic steps previously taken by the Ministry of Religion were coordination regarding the readiness and validity of pilgrims' travel documents required by Saudi Arabia.

"In the past week, many developments in the situation abroad have prompted the government to give directions to push for a ban on going abroad. It's not in the form of a ban, except for officials. If there's nothing important, don't go abroad, including Umrah pilgrims," ​​he said.