Council seeks re-entry ban of five years Published: Tuesday, 24 June, 2008, 01:43 AM Doha Time By Anwar Elshamy THE Advisory Council yesterday recommended that expatriate workers leaving Qatar should not be allowed to return for five years from the date of their departure from the country, a step the council said would protect the interests of the sponsors. Submitting its recommendations to the much-anticipated new sponsorship law, the council also said that expatriates should be denied the right to apply for residence permits for their parents. The two recommendations made by the council were meant to amend Articles 4 and 16 of the draft sponsorship law which stipulated that expatriates leaving the country may return after two years and they be allowed to bring in their parents to live with them. An internal committee at the council said in a report on the draft law that a five-year ban would serve as a "deterrent for expatriates from quitting their jobs and returning to the country to take up a better-paid job with a new employer". "The change in the article would protect the rights of the first sponsor who bore the cost of bringing the worker to the country," a member said. "I think it would be a deterrent for expatriates tempted by better job offers within the country. They begin to create troubles for their sponsors once they find better chances," the member said. About Article 16, the council recommended that foreign workers' parents should not be included along with wives and children who are eligible for residence permits in the country. "Bringing in parents would only add to the pressure on all service sectors in the country," the council said, justifying the change. The Advisory Council (Majlis al-Shura) is a consultative body and its recommendations will have to be approved by HH the Emir to become law. The council also passed a law increasing the blood money for accidental killing from QR150,000 to QR200,000. However, the parity of the amount to be paid as blood money for men and women raised a heated debate as nine members of the council expressed their reservations over the same amount to be paid for both the sexes. Council member Yousuf al-Rashid said that blood money for a woman should be half of that for men. "I do not agree either in parity or for an increase. I think that QR200,000 is too much. The amount should be reconsidered. I know that some Muslim scholars said that the blood money for a woman should not be the same as that of a man," he said. However, others members dismissed the reservations raised by the nine as "baseless and not in compliance with the opinion of the majority of Muslim scholars". The Advisory Council Speaker, HE Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi, said that the committee headed by Muslim scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi had recommended that the same amount be paid as blood money for females and males. "There is not a single verse in the Holy Qur'an or in the authentic traditions of Prophet Muhammad saying that the blood money for women should be half of that of men," he added. ----------------------------------------- This e-mail (including any file attachment) contains confidential information and/or may also be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the named addressees and any unauthorized dissemination or use by any other person or entity is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient you should not transmit, copy, print, disclose or otherwise make use of and/or place any reliance on this e-mail and its contents. If you have received this e-mail in error, you should immediately notify the sender by return e-mail and delete all copies from your system. The views, opinion or advice as may be contained herein are those of the sending individual and do not necessary represent that of SABIC or bind SABIC. E-mails can be corrupted, altered or falsified and SABIC shall not be liable for any alteration or falsification on this e-mail.
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