{"id":13971,"date":"2018-09-05T19:23:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T19:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13971"},"modified":"2018-09-05T19:23:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T19:23:54","slug":"qatar-lifts-controversial-exit-visa-system-for-most-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13971","title":{"rendered":"Qatar lifts controversial exit visa system for most workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1367101\/middle-east\" readability=\"49\">\n<p>\nDUBAI: Qatar amended its residency laws on Tuesday to allow most foreign workers to leave the country without exit permits from their employers, a provision which labor rights groups have long said should be abolished.<br \/>Doha is keen to show it is tackling allegations of worker exploitation as it prepares to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, which it has presented as a showcase of its progress and development.<br \/>The new law allows most workers to leave the country without exit permits from their employers, Qatar said in a statement quoting Minister of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs Issa Al-Nuaimi.<br \/>Employers will still be allowed to require up to five percent of their workforce to request permission to leave, after submitting their names to the government \u201cwith justifications based on the nature of the work,\u201d the statement said.<br \/>The ILO hailed the move as a \u201csignificant step\u201d for gas-rich Qatar, which committed last year to introducing sweeping labor reforms, including changes to the exit visa system.<br \/>\u201cThe ILO welcomes the enactment of Law No. 13, which will have a direct and positive impact on the lives of migrant workers in Qatar,\u201d said Houtan Homayounpour, the head of the ILO office in Doha, which was set up in April.<br \/>Labor and rights groups have attacked Qatar for its \u201ckafala\u201d sponsorship system, which is common in Gulf states where large portions of the population are foreigners.<br \/>Qatar\u2019s system still requires the country\u2019s 1.6 million mainly Asian foreign workers to obtain their employers\u2019 consent before changing jobs, which the groups say leaves workers open to abuse.<br \/>The government\u2019s other pledged reforms include introduction of a minimum wage and a grievance procedure for workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DUBAI: Qatar amended its residency laws on Tuesday to allow most foreign workers to leave the country without exit permits from their employers, a provision which labor rights groups have long said should be abolished.Doha is keen to show it is tackling allegations of worker exploitation as it prepares to host the 2022 soccer World&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}