Qatar opens second visa facilitation centre for Pakistanis

Insists it will help improve labour rights, ensure transparency

KARACHI: Qatar has inaugurated its second visa facilitation centre in Karachi in a bid to ensure swift visa processing as well as promote transparency and eventually improve labour rights in Qatar.

Major Abdullah Al-Khalifa, Director Visa Services Department - Qatar Ministry of Interior, along with Qatar Consul General in Karachi Mishal Mohammad Al-Ansari and Sindh Minister for Women Development Syeda Shehla Raza, inaugurated the centre on Saturday.

Qatar insists that introduction of the new visa mechanism will ensure transparency due to digitalisation of processes and completion of all procedural requirements before an applicant leaves Pakistan.

Work visa applicants going to Qatar will be required to sign work contracts, get their biometric data entered into the system and undergo medical test at the visa centre. Earlier, the visa centre was opened in Islamabad.



The increased transparency will aid Qatar in its goal of improving labour rights and will also help Pakistani workers to avoid the hassle of approaching recruitment agents.

Recruitment agencies are known for misguiding people. For instance, they will tell a worker about a high salary package which he will actually not receive.

"Qatar abides by international laws and we believe in labour rights," emphasised Visa Services Department Director Major Abdullah Al-Khalifa while talking to The Express Tribune on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony. "The employer will bear all the fees to be paid in Qatar and the worker will not be burdened."



Qatar has also announced an additional 100,000 jobs for Pakistanis. This came after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met Qatari Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani in mid-September and offered him assistance of Pakistani workforce and professionals in Qatar's development activities.

Many sectors of the Qatar economy, particularly the construction sector, are enjoying a boost due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup there.

In 2016, Qatar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pakistan to take in 200,000 Pakistani professionals and workers.

Ahead of the world cup, Qatar had been criticised internationally for poor labour conditions, an issue on which Doha did so well later that the International labour Organisation (ILO) praised its wide-ranging reforms.

Pakistan is the third country after Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where Qatar has opened the visa facilitation centre.