Dr. Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, secretary general of the General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP), has denied media reports that the agency had anything to do with the alleged ratification of a strategy to reduce the percentage of expatriates in Qatar from the current 88 percent to 50 by 2025. According to him, the Permanent Population Committee referred to in the media as the one responsible for the plan is not even a part of the GDSP.
Dr. Ibrahim said the future of the committee and the status of its report have yet to be decided upon. He said the views published in the newspapers had come from freelance experts who produced background reports for the committee in 2004 and are not considered in the formulation of the population policy.
According to the Labor Department, the proposed uniform job contract for all private sector employees would not be beneficial to workers. Faisal Al Emadi, assistant director of the Labor Department, said the government does not want workers to be denied extra benefits and privileges that employers are willing to give just because these are not in the uniform contract. The department has come up with broad guidelines to companies, including a suggested standard format of the employment agreement, but employers are at liberty to add clauses as long as these do not violate the labor law.
The Ministry of Civil Service Affairs and Housing has come up with a list of 50 recruiting companies that would be allowed to bring in foreign laborers to Qatar. The 50 companies passed the ministry's stringent criteria and the terms and conditions laid out by the labor law. The list of companies, their contact information and the names of their directors can be accessed at the ministry's website. All private firms seeking to hire foreign workers would have to get the services of any of the 50 recruiting companies on a contract basis.
A group of Indian laborers sought the help of their embassy to obtain the release of their colleague who is currently being held in a deportation center. According to the men, Afthab, an Indian laborer who came to Qatar to work as a domestic driver, had used a Nepalese passport in traveling to the country. The wrong document was detected by Qatari authorities when Afthab attempted to return to India.
Sources: "Indian with Nepalese passport seeks embassy help," The Peninsula, 1 September 2007; "Excess expats to exit," Bahrain Tribune, 6 September 2007; "50 recruiting companies get ministry nod," The Peninsula, 7 September 2007; "GSDP denies report on expat population control," The Peninsula, 10 September 2007; "Uniform labour contract not possible: Official," The Peninsula, 12 September 2007; "'Uniform labour deal impossible'," Bahrain Tribune, 14 September 2007