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Good practice Imported

Baseer and Makkah Route Initiative — Saudi Arabia’s AI crowd management and biometric pilgrim services for Hajj

Saudi Arabia · Makkah · See the Saudi Arabia profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 50% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Saudi Ministry of Interior and SDAIA deploy Baseer (tracking 1M+ pilgrims/day via computer vision) and the biometric Makkah Route Initiative across 11 airports in 7 countries. Hajj 2026: 44% fewer violators, 33% drop in border offences, 12% reduction in fake Hajj campaigns.

1 million+/day
Pilgrims tracked per day by Baseer (current)
75 sites
SDAIA-supported crowd-analytics sites (2026)
31 locations
Satellite imagery locations processed (2026)
>50 %
Environmental safety alerts generated autonomously (2026)
11 airports
Airports covered by Makkah Route Initiative (current)
7 countries
Countries covered by Makkah Route Initiative (current)
44 %
Decline in violators/deportees, Hajj 2026 vs prior year (Hajj 2026 vs previous year)
12 %
Reduction in fake Hajj campaigns (Hajj 2026 vs previous year)
33 %
Drop in residency/border-related offences (Hajj 2026 vs previous year)
2.5 million+
Medical care interactions supported (Hajj 2026 season)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia (Saudi Data and AI Authority – SDAIA)
Period
2019–present
Keywords
crowd management, computer vision, biometrics, pilgrimage services, public safety, smart city, religious events

Context

Saudi Arabia's annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the world's largest mass gatherings attracting 1.5-2 million international pilgrims, has become a testbed for government AI deployment at extraordinary scale.

Objectives

Baseer and companion platforms manage real-time crowd safety across the holy sites, while the Makkah Route Initiative streamlines pilgrim immigration and biometric processing before departure.

Activities

Baseer, developed jointly by the Ministry of Interior and the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), uses thermal imaging and AI-driven analytics to track more than one million worshippers a day and predict crowd surges. Sawaher and Sawaher Qiyada analyse feeds from thousands of security cameras across 75 SDAIA-supported sites; in 2026 the system processed satellite imagery across 31 locations and generated over 50% of environmental safety alerts autonomously. The Makkah Route Initiative, first piloted around 2019, provides biometric single-window visa, customs and health-screening services at 11 international airports across 7 countries.

Results

Reported outcomes from Hajj 2026 include a 44% decline in violators and deportees, a 12% reduction in fake Hajj campaigns, and a 33% drop in residency and border-related offences compared with the previous year. More than 2.5 million medical care interactions were supported during the season.

Conclusions

Emergency response has shifted from reactive to proactive safety management through predictive analytics, but the specific AI contribution cannot be disaggregated from personnel increases or other policy changes, and no independent third-party evaluation of the systems has been published.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M) — No public budget figures disclosed; infrastructure spans 75 SDAIA-supported sites, 14 security control centres, and 11 international airports across 7 countries.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The Makkah Route Initiative was first piloted around 2019 and expanded continuously since; Baseer and Sawaher operate as standing annual Hajj infrastructure.
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Interior (primary operational authority), Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) — technical authority, 24/7 real-time monitoring, security personnel across 14 control centres

Conditions for success

  • joint ministry/technical-authority governance (Ministry of Interior + SDAIA)
  • the national Vision 2030 AI governance framework
  • dense sensor and camera infrastructure across pilgrimage sites
  • cross-border coordination with partner-country airports

Common failure modes

  • no public algorithmic impact assessment or external audit mechanism identified
  • AI-specific impact cannot be disaggregated from broader security-operation changes

Where it fits

Governance type
national ministry plus AI authority joint governance
Scale
national mass-gathering event, 1.5-2M pilgrims/year
Income level
high-income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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