JEDDAH – The Council of Ministers Monday approved a package of organizational procedures for pilgrims including an e-tracking system for pilgrims coming from abroad. A pilgrim should fulfill all necessary requirements for a Haj visa, including fingerprints (a measure currently conducted at Saudi ports of entry) in his/her country before being granted the visa. All authorities concerned in the Kingdom will electronically share the specific information about every pilgrim coming from outside the country. The e-tracking system ensures transparency in all procedures involving pilgrims and the services offered to them, such as, housing, transportation and catering. This is meant to enable pilgrims to acquaint themselves with the level and cost of services before they arrive in the Kingdom. Every pilgrim will have an electronic file which will serve as a reference in case of evaluating the performance of various Haj agencies and settling claims. A Ministry of Haj supervisory committee, which will include representatives from a number of government agencies, will supervise the preparation of documents for e-tracking. Chairing the Cabinet session King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, briefed the members about talks he had with a number of leaders of friendly countries. The Cabinet tasked the Saudi Red Crescent Authority with lifting those who die in traffic accidents outside the cities, governorates and rural centers as well those who die on highways. At present the Special Security Roads Forces is performing this task. For this purpose a joint liaison center will be set up which will be linked organizationally to the General Directorate of the Public Security and will include all agencies involved in ambulance services. The center will have a unified telecommunication system linking all emergency services agencies. In a statement to SPA following the Cabinet session, Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, said the members heard a report about developments taking place in a number of Arab countries. He said the Cabinet warned against the implications of the Syrian crisis and renewed the Kingdom's call to stop all violent acts, bloodshed and the violation of human rights in Syria. The Cabinet condemned the storming by Israeli occupation forces and extremist Israeli groups of the Aqsa Mosque, urging the international community to put an end to these repeated violations and prevent Israel from escalating the tension in the region. It commended the Lima Declaration issued at the 3rd Summit for Arab and Latin America and highlighted King Abdullah's speech in which the King welcomed the convening of the fourth summit in the Kingdom.
