DOHA: The Ministry of Interior (MoI) and the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLSA) have called on all private companies and employers to prepare for the implementation of the amendment of the law regulating entry, exit and residency of the expatriates.

“The Ministry has completed all the procedures related to the implementation of the law. The law allowed the employees of private companies to leave without exit permit except the proportion of five percent of their workers, which is a percentage determined by the employer due to the nature of their work like those who work in money exchange companies and gold shops and so on,” said Director of Labour Inspection Department at the MADLSA, Mohammed Ali Al Meer.

Al Meer was speaking during a workshop held as part of a series of awareness workshops on the new amendments in the law regulating the entry and exit of expatriates and their residence and held at Qatar Chamber headquarters.

Captain Nasser Al Khalaf from the MoI said that the law will be implemented effectively after being announced in the official gazette, pointing out that it belongs to the private sector and does not include government or semi-governmental agencies or domestic helps.

Mohammed Al Obaidli, Assistant Under-secretary for Labour Affairs at the MADLSA said that the amendments made by Qatar in Law No. (21) for the year 2015 regulating the entry and exit of expatriates and their residence included an amendment to Article 7 which stipulates exit of workers from the State for the purpose vacation, final leave or departure for any other purpose, whereas workers under the Labour Law can leave the country directly without producing a leave notification and thus it abolishes existing exit permit system. “This amendment will come into effect in the near future,” he said.

A number of representatives of diplomatic missions in the state attended the seminar and were briefed about the new amendments.

Al Obaidli defined the new decisions as part of a series of decisions and procedures for the development of workers recruitment and employment system in Qatar.

“We work in coordination with the Ministry of the Interior and the Qatar Chamber to hold several awareness seminars on these procedures for the relevant bodies, including the diplomatic missions,” he added.

Maj. Abdullah Khalifa Al Mohannadi, Director of Visa Support Services Department at the Ministry of Interior explained the initiative to allow expatriate workers to complete residency permit procedures such as fingerprinting and biometric data processing, medical examination and the signing of work contracts for expatriates at their home countries.

He explained that this initiative enables the completion of all procedures for the recruitment of workers, in their countries, before coming to Qatar. “The process will be completed at special service centers set up in their countries and through an electronic system that provides various steps and stages of implementing the recruitment process including medical examination, biometric data process and signing of employment contracts.”

The project will be implemented in eight countries as a first stage, namely: Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia. The project will be implemented in Sri Lanka next month and later in the rest of the eight countries and to be followed in all the countries from where the recruitment is made.

Source: The Peninsula Qatar