DOHA: Some long-time residents have now begun raising the demand for citizenship rights, with at least one individual calling up a popular morning programme of Qatar Radio yesterday highlighting the issue.
Another individual said he had been in government service for 17 years and is now living with wife and children in a bad condition in a small rundown apartment.
“I need support,” said the caller who identified himself as Juma Al Ali, a former employee of Doha Municipality.
The first caller who gave his name as Abdul Wahid said he has been working with the state electronic media for over 30 years and living here since childhood with no country except Qatar to call his home.
“As a child I used to ask my mother why we don’t have Qatari passport. And now, my children ask their mother the same question. I am afraid, my grandchildren would be doing the same,” said Abdul Wahid.
“I travel overseas using a document since I hold no passport,” he added.
He told ‘Good Morning, My Beloved Country’ call-in programme early yesterday that Qatari people are surprised he is not a fellow citizen.
The host of the programme, Abeer, said even she had worked with Abdul Wahid and she too was surprised to know that he was not a Qatari.
“It’s news to me,” she declared.
Abdul Wahid said he hoped his plea for Qatari citizenship would be considered favourably. “It’s ironic that in my own country I have to live under the sponsorship of someone else,” he said.
Highlighting issues
Qatar Radio’s popular morning programme, meanwhile, has become a platform for highlighting burning social issues. The plight of the children of Qatari mothers and non-Qatari fathers was highlighted by some callers earlier.
These children have been struggling to get citizenship rights and their plight is so moving that a mother was cited on a social networking site earlier as saying: “The only thing we can offer our unfortunate children in Qatar is a grave.”
The issue has been raised in public forums like the social networking sites as well as on Twitter several times. These children are treated as expatriates and do not enjoy equal rights.
They must get residency permits stamped on their passports every year. They do not enjoy free public healthcare facilities and free education although their mothers are Qatari.
Recently, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have that they are taking steps to make sure that the children of Emirati and Saudi women who are married to non-nationals are treated as citizens in all respects.
Qatar’s Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has also taken up the plight of the children of Qatari mothers and non-Qatari fathers for redress.
THE PENINSULA
