Religious Affairs Minister Appreciates Hajj, Umrah Integrated Service Counter at Airport

Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin inspects hajj and umrah services counter, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Cengkareng, Sunday (26/50. (Photo by: Ministry of Religious Affairs PR).

Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin on Sunday (26/5) inspected integrated hajj and umrah service counter, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Cengkareng, and talked with a number of officers from Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah, from state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura, from the immigration office, the airport, and several umrah pilgrims.

“The counter is really impressive since it is a concrete result of cross-sectoral cooperation. Nevertheless, there is always room for technical improvement,” the Minister said.

We need to do some improvement because the counter is still on dissemination phase, he added. For the record, the Ministry of Religious Affairs established the integrated services counter in a bid to improve services and inspection in checking all documents required for hajj and umrah pilgrims as well as to receive complaints from the pilgrims.

“Ministry of Religious Affairs in general, and Directorate General of Hajj and Umrah in particular intent to take a preventive action to ensure that all hajj and umrah pilgrims would not face any problem and issue particularly in terms of travel documents when they are in Saudi Arabia,” Lukman firmly said.

“Thus, it needs an integrated inspection, not only by the Ministry, but also by the immigration office, and other related ministries/institutions to guarantee the departure and return of hajj and umrah pilgrims,” he said.

Also on that occasion, the Minister conveyed his highest appreciation to Angkasa Pura 2 which had provided space for the service counter and expressed hope that the airport operator will provide a permanent counter in the future.

In addition to improvement of the counter, service system also need to be upgraded. Lukman expected the services will be integrated immediately with the Ministry’s integrated online system for hajj and umrah known as SIPATUH that allows online monitoring to the services. The system is also integrated to the immigration office so that the results of the Ministry’s inspection will be used as one indicator in immigration check besides ticket, passport, and visa. Responding to this issue, an immigration official at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tessa, said that the immigration office will take into account the Ministry’s wish.

Meanwhile, a representative of Angkasa Pura said that the airport operator will build a terminal for umrah and hajj services that will be equipped with an integrated service and inspection counter and will involve the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

“We are now working on the basic design. The program is expected to be completed by 2021,” he concluded. (Ministry of Religious Affairs PR /EN)

Translated by : Rany Anjany Subachrum
Edited by : Mia Medyana Bonaedy