DOHA, 23 April 2005 — A survey, commissioned by Qatar’s Planning Council, has found that many Qataris will like to see an overhaul of the state’s labor sponsorship rules.
People surveyed wanted the government to take steps to “attract and retain the world’s highest skilled work force — even if it means loosening immigration and visa restrictions.”
They also would like to see the government taking steps to “promote foreign direct investment (and) to reduce or eliminate sponsorship rules.”
Under labor sponsorship rules in force in all Gulf countries, foreign workers are tied to the employer who has brought them into the country. Changing employers are allowed in special cases but permission from the original sponsor is a must.
The survey, undertaken by the competitiveness consulting firm OTF Group, broke the myth that current labor sponsorship rules have wide support among the Gulf nationals.
“The young generation is against the so-called ‘free visa’ system,” a Qatari businessman, who did not want to identify himself, told Arab News yesterday. “Some might have used the system once to make a quick buck and a few might even be doing it now, but the youngsters generally are against such practices.”
He felt the age of “visa business” in which a Gulf national receives an annual fee from the workers sponsored by him and working for another, is on its way out. “The level of foreign workers should be regulated, but not exploited.”
He welcomed the survey’s findings and hoped the government would initiate policies based on it.
But another Qatari, an executive with an oil company, did not expect any immediate change in the state’s sponsorship rules. “The current system is deeply entrenched and most employers think that it is to their benefit,” he said.
The survey, which was discussed at a session of the Doha Development Forum held recently, also found that many Qataris wanted the government to ease bureaucratic controls, especially in business registration and customs procedures.
Despite the demand for relaxation in regulations and rules, Qataris are generally optimistic about the future of their country as the state is already involved in a number of potentially competitive industries, according to the survey.
It said Qatar comes at the top in the list of trustworthy countries with 70 percent of the respondents saying that most of the people can be trusted, ahead of Sweden (66%), the United States (50%) and Japan (42%).
Meanwhile, in another survey conducted by Doha’s Arabic language Al-Sharq newspaper, several expatriates have called for removing the exit permit system and relaxing the visa regime in Qatar.
“The requirement of an exit permit by an expatriate every time he wished to travel out of Qatar came in for scathing attack from people surveyed,” the report said.
“It amounts to slavery of a foreign worker and it is a weapon of blackmail,” Al-Sharq quoted an expatriate as saying about the exit permit system.
Many GCC countries have done away with exit permits and Qatar should follow suit, he said.
There are some sponsors who demand up to 1,000 Qatari riyals each time a worker approaches them for an exit permit even if it is required for travel to a neighboring country to spend a weekend, the newspaper was told.
Another expat lambasted the rules governing sponsorship change and said that expatriates, like nationals, should be given an opportunity to change employers on genuine grounds.
“A poor expatriate worker perennially faces the threat of repatriation and is, therefore, prone to being dictated terms by his sponsor. It is high time the rules are changed,” he was quoted as saying in the survey.
