Ambassador: Qatar to employ 20,000 Palestinians
June 28, 2015 10:31 A.M. (Updated: June 28, 2015 3:59 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766202

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Qatar is to create work opportunities for up to 20,000
Palestinians, the Palestinian ambassador to Qatar said Saturday.

Munir Ghannam told Ma’an that "practical steps have started to embrace
Palestinian workers in Qatar, as the country plans to host the first group
of Palestinian workers after the holy month of Ramadan."

Qatar agreed in January 2014 to grant work visas to 20,000 Palestinians,
following 20 years in which Palestinians had been unable to apply for work
in the prosperous Gulf state.

The first group of Palestinian employees will include 200 Gazans and an
unspecified number from the West Bank, and are expected to work in the field
of education, the ambassador said Saturday.

He added that the embassy had asked Qatari officials to employ Palestinian
refugees living in the Diaspora as well.

Ghannam said that a number of Qatari companies were scheduled to submit
applications Saturday asking for permission to bring about 2,000
Palestinians into the country to work for them.

The ambassador said that Palestinian employees will be treated according to
Qatari work laws and regulations, adding that Qatari companies and
organizations "prefer to contract employees directly without a need for
brokers."

Work conditions in Qatar have come under international scrutiny in recent
months ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

With tens of thousands of foreign workers living in squalid conditions,
Qatar agreed in May to build seven "cities" to house more than 250,000
employees.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the move, but said: "Housing has never been
identified as the major problem in Qatar, it's the system that's the
problem."

"The problems are the mechanisms of control which place an inordinate amount
of power in the hands of employers."

The Palestinian employees are expected to take more specialized roles, with
slightly improved work conditions.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah initially met with Qatari Emir
SheikhTamim Ibn Hamad Al Thani in January 2014 to request that Qatar allow
Palestinians to work there in order to help reduce unemployment rates in
Palestine.

Ghannam said that the Palestinian Ministry of Labor agreed with its Qatari
counterpart to create a joint information bank to which Palestinians send
their resumes and contact information.

This information is accessible to Qatari employers who can choose the people
they want and contact them directly.

Ghannam said that there are around 20,000 Palestinians already working in
Qatar who have been living there for decades, before restrictions on work
visas came into place.