By Ibrahim Alawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — There have been no cases of forgery in the Haj visas or the passports of the pilgrims who have so far arrived in the Kingdom from outside, the Directorate General of Passports (Jawazat) has announced.

It said all its men and women staff are well trained on quickly discovering any cases of forgery.

The Jawazat said its staff are using state-of-the-art technology to check the authenticity of travel documents and Haj visas including fingerprinting and the eagle eye scanning.

It said it has started using a new equipment to thoroughly compare the photos in the passports with the looks of the man or woman in front of them even if the photos are old.

The Jawazat said its male and female staff welcome the pilgrims at the Haj Terminal of King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah in eight languages consisting of English, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, Persian, Urdu and Turkish.

The staff were trained in the languages at the Jawazat languages institute.

Omar Al-Mudaraa, a Jawazat staff, said he speaks perfect English as he was thoroughly trained on the language to be able to communicate with the guests of Allah.

Abdullah Al-Sulaimi, another staff member, said he studied the Chinese language while Sara, a female staff member, said she speaks English and Urdu fluently.

The Jawazat, on the other hand, said until Monday evening a total of 1,687,226 pilgrims have arrived from all parts of the world.

It said 1,579,534 pilgrims have arrived by air, 90,776 by land and 16,916 by sea with an increase of 117,176 pilgrims over their number the same time last year representing about seven percent.