Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah Management, Directorate General of Immigration Ink Cooperation Agreement

Photo Caption: Hajj and Umrah Management Director General Nizar Ali and Immigration Director General Ronny F. Sompie sign a Cooperation Agreement at Ministry of Religious Affairs, Jakarta, Thursday (31/5). (Photo by: Public Relations of Ministry of Religious Affairs).

Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah Management of Ministry of Religious Affairs together with Directorate General of Immigration of Ministry of Law and Human Rights agree to cooperate in data and information exchange about Umrah and Hajj in order to control and protect the organization of Umrah and Hajj.

The collaboration between the two parties was marked by the signing of Cooperation Agreement between Hajj and Umrah Management Director General Nizar Ali and Immigration Director General Ronny F. Sompie at Ministry of Religious Affairs, Jakarta.

“In the future, passport application for Umrah without a recommendation from Ministry of Religious Affairs will be rejected. Directorate General of Immigration is our last defense for this process, making this data exchange very important,” Nizar Ali said in Jakarta, Thursday (31/05).

According to Nizar, Ministry of Religious Affairs is developing an integrated Umrah and Special Hajj Control System (Sipatuh). This electronic monitoring system uses colors indicator. Red means the passport not yet processed by umrah travel operators, yellow means the process is ongoing, and green means the process is completed.

“Through this Cooperation, the information can be obtained from the Directorate General of Immigration through an integrated system so that pilgrims can personally supervise their travel operators through Sipatuh. This will eliminate some manual steps, so it is very effective and efficient and we can immediately know if the process is completed,” Nizar said.

In addition to passport application, synergy will also be implemented during departure and return of the pilgrims. Nizar said, if a travel operator dispatches 10 pilgrims, the returnee must be the same, except there is a death or other justifiable reasons. “If there is a difference, we will check and we will impose sanctions,” he said.

“This cooperation is important in the context of service and protection to umrah and hajj pilgrims, as well as optimal supervision of umrah travel operators (PPIU) and hajj travel operators (PIHK),” Nizar continued.

The Immigration Director General Ronny F. Sompie welcomed this Agreement. He emphasized that the Agreement is important in order to provide protection to the Indonesian pilgrims who will perform umrah or hajj.

The Cooperation Agreement itself contains four things that have been agreed; exchange of data and information, establishment of communication networks, control and protection of the pilgrims, and human resource development. “We need this together in the implementation of our duties and functions respectively,” Ronny said.

This former Chief of Bali Police also added that his directorate is responsible for immigration services, mainly passport application and security related to immigration. “Immigration control can be optimized by this data exchange. Not only exchanging information, but also to control the PPIU,” Ronny said.

Ronny affirmed his commitment to assist Ministry of Religious Affairs in the control of PPIU and umrah services. According to him, there are two things that will be done in order to carry out the control. First, the process of passport application would be tighter. “If there is a passport application for umrah, we must get a review from Ministry of Religious Affairs related to the data. So far it has been implemented in Ministry of Religious Affairs City/Regency Office,” Ronny said.

Second, Ronny continued, his directorate will also tighten supervision at the time of departure to ensure the purpose of the pilgrims departure is for a special Umrah or Hajj.

Ministry of Religious Affairs of Umrah and Special Hajj Director Arfi Hatim said in his report that the Agreement became part of his Ministry’s effort to improve the supervision of PPIU and PIHK, as well as the services and protection of the pilgrims.

This Agreement, according to Arfi, aims as the foundation of the two parties to synergize the exchange of data of umrah and hajj pilgrims electronically, to implement an integrated service and to give optimal services to umrah and hajj pilgrims through the availability of comprehensive and accountable data which could be used by the Government to formulate its policy.

“This historical moment is important to improve and arrange the implementation of special Umrah and Hajj in the future,” Arfi concluded.

Also attending the occasion were Director General of Immigration Cooperation of Ministry of Law and Human Rights Effendy B. Perangin Angin, Secretary of Director General of Haj and Umrah Management of Ministry of Religious Affairs Khasan Faozi, Director of the Hajj Domestic Service Ahda Barori, and a number of echelon III officials of Directorate General of Haj and Umrah Management and Directorate General of Immigration. (Humas Kemenag/ES/EN) (GWH/MMB/Naster)