DOHA: Work visas for Pakistanis carry a huge premium in the black market and are available for up to an incredible QR60,000 even as the public representative body, the Central Municipal Council (CMC), says it is readying itself to raise the issue of the illegal visa trade and fight the menace.
Local Arabic daily Al Raya reported yesterday quoting a businessman, Rashid Al Dosri, that the rate of ‘free visas’ for Pakistanis had soared to QR60,000, while that for Bangladeshis ranged between QR15,000 and QR20,000. He added that the hapless victims of the money-spinning visa racket had no choice but to take to crime.
“A victim pays so much of money to land here to take up a job and when he finds there is no job for him it is natural that he gets utterly frustrated. He can, therefore, take to all kinds of crime,” said Al Dosri. And a new trend is emerging in the black marketing of the visa — after a victim has arrived here having paid through his nose for a ‘free visa’ the nasty racketeers (who have sold him the visa) declare him a runaway worker in order to safeguard themselves against any possible legal repercussions.
“Normally, a fake company owner would approach the law-enforcement agency after a few days or weeks of the arrival of a victim worker and file a complaint that he has run away,” CMC member, Ahmed Al Sheeb, told the daily.
Then, there are some fake companies that manage to sell 10 to 20 work visas and allow the workers to take up jobs elsewhere only to collect a ‘fee’ from them on a monthly or yearly basis, he said.
One or two persons (a reference to fellow nationals) set up a fake company (a company that exists only on paper so it manages to get work visas) and then it is the expatriates who help such company owners to sell ‘free visas’ at exorbitant rates, Al Sheeb said. And the victims are known to these unethical expatriates.
According to Al Dosri, fake companies must be identified at the time they apply for renewing their commercial license and action should be initiated against them so their nasty operations cease, suggested CMC member, Mohamed Saleh Al Khayarin.
Another CMC member, Hamad Saleh Al Haul, said that the public representative body has actually urged the Ministry of Interior to crack down on the ‘free visa’ racket and bring the culprits to book.
A former member of the Advisory Council, Abdulrahman Al Jefairi, said that the issue was once raised in the House and it was discussed that fake companies be reined in because the illegal visa trade is posing grave threats to social stability and security as its victims are forced to take to crime in desperation.
“They (the victims) sell their properties or take loans back home to get employment here but when they arrive here they are frustrated to find there is no job so they are forced to indulge in crime like selling drugs or doing immoral activity,” said Al Jefairi.
CMC chairman, Saud Al Hanzab said that CMC was aware of the thriving visa racket and would discuss the issue threadbare. The illegal visa trade is human trafficking in the eyes of the law so it must be dealt with an iron hand, he said. Mohamed Al Hajri, another CMC member, said that even educated people were falling victim to the visa racketeers and some were forced to take up menial jobs.
The Peninsula
