Hamad International Airport
Doha: The Exit Permit Grievances Committee has helped expatriates in resolving several cases as it received a total of 84 applications in the last year and has taken relevant action, said an official.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) organised a webinar entitled ‘The Functions of the Exit Permit Grievances Committee’, recently during which Lieutenant Aamir Mohsin Abdulla Al Omri from the Exit Permit Grievances Committee said the committee was formed on November 6, 2016 according to the decree No. 51 of 2016. The formation of the committee was made in the context of the qualitative change mentioned in the law No. (21) 2015 in comparison with the previous law No. (4) 2009.
The committee is helpful to get an exit permit if someone cannot leave the country because of any emergency. Some of the features of the law include cancellation of the sponsorship system, cancellation of the exit permit. The functions of the committee agree with the spirit of the article No. 46 of the Constitution which allows addressing the public authorities by all individuals without any discrimination, he noted.
Regarding, achievements and statistics of the Work of the Exit Permit Grievance Committee from January to December 2022 the official explained, “Within one year the total number of applications that came to the Exit Permit Grievances Committee totalled 84, which is a less number. The achievements in the last year and the number of actions taken include the request for leave submitted by 12 persons; 33 emergency leave and 39 requests for final exit. He further added that 64 persons were given approval; 12 were refused; 7 were saved; and 1 request was extended.”
Speaking about grievance appeal procedures, he said that according to article No. 7 of the Law No. (1/2017) an expatriate who came for work has the right to exit temporarily or final exit during the validity of the labor contract period
He also explained the grievance appeal application procedures, “The expatriate should submit his appeal to the secretariat of the Committee in the prescribed form which is prepared by the committee along with attachment of supporting documents for his grievance appeal. The staff concerned at the secretariat of the Committee will receive the appeal and register it in the registry and the applicant will receive a notification with grievance number and date of appeal submission.”
“The appeal should be reviewed by the committee in the first meeting after submitting the appeal. The committee will notify its decision to the concerned administrative unit in the Ministry, recruiter and expatriate as well as soon as the decision on the appeal has been taken by any means of communication (like fax or telephone or SMS message). The expatriate and the recruiter has the right to appeal to the Minister within 24 hours from the date of notification if they don’t agree with the decision.
“The Secretariat of the Committee will submit its decision to the Minister of his deputy and they will take their final decision on the grievance appeal within 48 hours from the date of appeal submission. The expiry of this period without any reply will be considered as a refusal on the appeal and the decision on the appeal will be final,” he added.
The official also elaborated on the reasons of rejecting the application by the committee, “The committee may reject the application for exit permit for certain cases such as existence of any security restrictions on the expatriate in order to protect the security of the State and the society (like travel ban, criminal case under investigation).”
He further said, “Exit permit may also not be approved in case of judicial procedures at the courts of Qatar for safeguarding the rights of the recruiter or anybody else (if the case is criminal), and existence of any financial claims against the expatriate. However, under the guarantee of a sponsor, the expatriate can be granted an exit permit.”
