Saudis call for visa biometrics
Pilgrimage registration to reopen in SA
PREPARATIONS for Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, are to get a touch of 21st-century technology with the introduction of digital biometric authentication as a visa requirement by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
News of the new requirement was relayed recently by South African Hajj and Umrah Council (Sahuc) president Shaheen Ayub Essop following meetings with Saudi-mandated visa service provider VFS TasHeel International.
South Africa is the latest of an envisioned 33 countries worldwide where the system will be rolled out.
“The Saudi government wants to reduce the time spent at immigration offices for people who enter the country. It is usually done there where facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics are conducted,” said Essop.
Local biometrics capturing began on Monday for business and general travellers to Saudi Arabia.
“But for people travelling for Umrah and Hajj it will only begin later this year,” said Essop.
The service is available at offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town at a cost of R57.
“I know that they’re going to institute a mobile service in Durban, but I don’t know what the cost will be,” he said.
Sahuc also announced this week that it would reopen registration for would-be Hajj pilgrims next month. The process was closed in July because the waiting list was too long.
The Saudi government reduced the quota of pilgrims accepted from each country during renovation work to expand the capacity of its Grand Mosque.
The decision to reopen registration was taken last weekend at a meeting of Sahuc’s board and national general council in Gauteng.
“I think the public has received it pretty well as they were the ones calling for [the reopening of registration],” said Essop.
He added that the quota reduction, although under- standable, had “created a large queueing process and right now we’re sitting with a queue of about eight years, which is about 16 000 people.”
Essop said the reopened queuing system would prioritise applicants strictly by time and date.
“That means that we don’t take any differentiating factors into account, except the date and time of an applicant’s application.
“So if a person applied on January 1 2012, he will obviously be first in the queue, unlike, for instance, a person who applied on December 1 2012,” said Essop.
The list of the 2 000 South African pilgrims accredited for Hajj this year is expected to be released on April 14 and 15.