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Discuss this article (2 Comments)Foreign embassies welcome Qatar sponsorship laws
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Sunday, 01 March 2009
EMPLOYEE RIGHTS: Foreign embassies have said the new laws will help them repatriate workers more easily. (Getty Images)
Qatar’s recent overhaul of its sponsorship laws that include making it illegal for employers to keep an employees passport have been welcomed by labour exporter countries, it was reported on Sunday.
The Philippine Overseas Labour Office (POLO) said the move would make it far quicker to repatriate its citizens and removed ambiguity over who should keep the workers’ passports is gone with the new legislation according to Qatar daily The Peninsula.
“We are very happy with the new law,” said Vivo Vidal, a senior official from POLO based in Doha here.
“They (Filipino workers) were upset about someone else keeping their passports,” he added.
Sanjeev Kohli, a minister at the Indian Embassy also welcomed the move. The embassy received on average four passport loss complaints a day and often had to deal with distressed Indians who are unable to go home as they can not retrieve their passport.
The Nepalese Embassy said the new law was going to help. “The passport of a worker should be with him,” said a senior Nepalese diplomat, while the Ambassador, Dr Suryanath Mishra, simply commented: “The new law is welcome.”
A source at the Sri Lankan Embassy said that his low-income compatriots coming to the embassy for help in returning home, were often referred to the Criminal Evidence and Information Department (CEID).
The CEID then summons their sponsors and asks for their documents but many claims to have lost them, the official said.
“This takes a lot of time with the result that a home-bound fellow Sri Lankan gets stuck just because he has no passport,” he added.
“But if a worker has his passport with him, we can send him straight to the CEID and from there he can be sent home quickly,” he said.
READERS' COMMENTS
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Passports are valuable
Posted by Kieran, London, UK on Monday 2 March 2009 at 15:12 UAE time
Whilst everybody should enjoy the right to keep their passport with them (it, after all, belongs to a government and not to the individual) there may still be problems with people who, through their living conditions or whatever, find it easy to lose things like passports or have them stolen or taken from them.
Let's not forget that these documents have tremendous value to the wrong kind of people.
It might be a sound move if the various embassies offered some way of providing a safe holding point for (amongst others) laborers', maids' and drivers' passports to be deposited with them.
They could be retrievable by submitting a form a week in advance or whatever but, at least, they would be secure whilst the employee is in the country.
Posted by Kieran, London, UK on Monday 2 March 2009 at 15:12 UAE time
Whilst everybody should enjoy the right to keep their passport with them (it, after all, belongs to a government and not to the individual) there may still be problems with people who, through their living conditions or whatever, find it easy to lose things like passports or have them stolen or taken from them.
Let's not forget that these documents have tremendous value to the wrong kind of people.
It might be a sound move if the various embassies offered some way of providing a safe holding point for (amongst others) laborers', maids' and drivers' passports to be deposited with them.
They could be retrievable by submitting a form a week in advance or whatever but, at least, they would be secure whilst the employee is in the country.
Holding Passports..
Posted by Confused Chappy, Dubai, uae. on Sunday 1 March 2009 at 17:27 UAE time
Why would the company hold a passport anyway, it still goes on in Dubai, my friends have theirs held by a popular hotel in bur dubai which i find ridiculous and have to send a letter to the HR to ask for it back, and if they don't return it afterwards they don't get paid....
I thought we lived in the 21st century now, not the middle ages.....
It should be illegal here also.....
Posted by Confused Chappy, Dubai, uae. on Sunday 1 March 2009 at 17:27 UAE time
Why would the company hold a passport anyway, it still goes on in Dubai, my friends have theirs held by a popular hotel in bur dubai which i find ridiculous and have to send a letter to the HR to ask for it back, and if they don't return it afterwards they don't get paid....
I thought we lived in the 21st century now, not the middle ages.....
It should be illegal here also.....
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