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Article

22 Jun 2017

Author:
Tom Finn, Reuters (Qatar)

Qatar expats say leave canceled, travel restricted after Arab rift

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Expatriates working in Qatar said...their employers had canceled holidays and barred them from leaving the country in the wake of a rift with other Arab powers. A Qatari government official said some leave had been canceled in "essential government sectors" to keep staff on hand as authorities made plans to cope with the crisis, but did not mention travel restrictions or any focus on foreigners. Expatriate executives and engineers at Qatar Petroleum...said the orders started a day after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed trade and transport links with Qatar..."I was told not to travel. My exit permit and holiday was canceled," said a British expatriate at one of the state-owned group's subsidiaries. A spokesman for Qatar Petroleum said that due to the sanctions on Qatar "a few selected critical employees may have been asked to postpone their leave for operational reasons at their discretion."...Doctors from the government-run Hamad hospital made similar reports and others said the orders had affected hundreds of people...A work-sponsorship system widely enforced in the Gulf and known in Qatar as "kafala" requires foreign workers to get their employer's consent to change jobs or leave the country. Expatriates from Europe and America usually acquire multiple-exit permits from their employers allowing them to travel more freely than migrant laborers from India and Nepal who make up the bulk of the 2.7 million-strong population.

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