President Dr Mohamed Muizzu and First Lady Saajidha Mohamed on Monday officially inaugurated the Makkah Route Initiative for Maldivian Hajj pilgrims.

The first couple inaugurated the initiative during a special ceremony held at Velana International Airport (VIA) with Lieutenant General Sulaiman bin Abdulaziz Al-Yahya, Chairman of Saudi Arabia's Makkah Route Initiative Committee and Advisor to the Saudi Minister of Interior, along with senior officials from the Saudi Hajj Ministry, Immigration and the Foreign Ministry in attendance.

Senior officials from the Maldivian government also attended the ceremony.

As part of the official inauguration, President Dr Muizzu presented the passport to the first pilgrim utilizing the service, while the First Lady presented the passport to the second pilgrim.  Al-Yahya presented the third passport while Saudi Charge d'Affaires to the Maldives Fahad Aldosari handed the passport to the fourth pilgrim.

After the ceremony, the President and First Lady also met with the first batch of local Hajj pilgrims who departed to Saudi on Monday, and wished them well. 

Saudi Arabia decided to include the Maldives in the Makkah Route Initiative on 10 May.  With the launching of the initiative on Monday, Maldives has become  the eighth country to benefit from the initiative. The other countries are Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Côte d'Ivoire.

The "Makkah Route" Initiative focuses on facilitating the smooth and seamless completion of all travel procedures for pilgrims from beneficiary countries in their designated embarkation points. These include issuing Hajj visas electronically, taking biometrics, completing entry procedures to the Kingdom from the airport of the country of departure after verifying that the required health requirements are met.

The process involves coding and sorting luggage according to transportation and accommodation arrangements in the Kingdom. The passengers are then transferred directly to buses to be transported to their residences in Makkah and Madinah. Partner agencies are responsible for the delivery of their luggage to buses and accommodation of the pilgrims.

The Ministry of Interior is implementing the initiative for the seventh year in a row as part of the Doyof Al-Rahman Program, one of the programs of the Kingdom's Vision 2030. This initiative is being implemented in cooperation with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), the General Authority for Endowments, the Doyof Al-Rahman Program, and the General Directorate of Passports.