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Santhosh Chandran
DOHA
Industrial contracting companies that brought hundreds of skilled workers to Qatar on short-term contracts are struggling to find ways to send them home as COVID-19 leaves them stuck in the country.
The companies are trying to charter special flights to send them back and are awaiting approval from the authorities concerned, according to sources in the industry.
Every year, hundreds of workers from countries such as India and Sri Lanka come to Qatar to work in the oil and gas sector on shut-down projects. Carried out during a planned period of cessation at a refinery or a plant, a shut-down project generally lasts for two or three months and requires a large number of human resources.
“Recruiting skilled workers for shutdown projects is a regular practice in this sector,” said the senior officer of a contracting company that operates in the oil and gas sector.
“We recruit skilled workers for two or three months for shut-down projects at big companies. When the job is done, we send them back according to the contract. We have more than 600 workers in this category to send back home as their contracts are over,” he said.
Maintaining the workers for long term in Qatar after the expiry of contracts is a big financial challenge for the contracting companies.
“As per the contract, sending them back is our responsibility. We have approached the authorities concerned in Qatar and India to operate chartered flights to some cities in southern India,” a senior employee of a contracting company in Al Khor told Qatar Tribune.
Sources at the Indian Embassy in Doha said they have received such proposals from various companies and organisations.
K R Jayaraj, president of Kerala Business Forum (KBF), an association of the business community in Doha, said, “We have been trying to arrange chartered flights since April. We have approached the Indian Embassy and the authorities concerned in India with this request. We have also offered five tickets free of charge for deserving workers from other sectors who have registered with the embassy for repatriation.”
The ticket fare for each person on a 180-seat chartered flight is estimated as QR2,000.
DOHA
Industrial contracting companies that brought hundreds of skilled workers to Qatar on short-term contracts are struggling to find ways to send them home as COVID-19 leaves them stuck in the country.
The companies are trying to charter special flights to send them back and are awaiting approval from the authorities concerned, according to sources in the industry.
Every year, hundreds of workers from countries such as India and Sri Lanka come to Qatar to work in the oil and gas sector on shut-down projects. Carried out during a planned period of cessation at a refinery or a plant, a shut-down project generally lasts for two or three months and requires a large number of human resources.
“Recruiting skilled workers for shutdown projects is a regular practice in this sector,” said the senior officer of a contracting company that operates in the oil and gas sector.
“We recruit skilled workers for two or three months for shut-down projects at big companies. When the job is done, we send them back according to the contract. We have more than 600 workers in this category to send back home as their contracts are over,” he said.
Maintaining the workers for long term in Qatar after the expiry of contracts is a big financial challenge for the contracting companies.
“As per the contract, sending them back is our responsibility. We have approached the authorities concerned in Qatar and India to operate chartered flights to some cities in southern India,” a senior employee of a contracting company in Al Khor told Qatar Tribune.
Sources at the Indian Embassy in Doha said they have received such proposals from various companies and organisations.
K R Jayaraj, president of Kerala Business Forum (KBF), an association of the business community in Doha, said, “We have been trying to arrange chartered flights since April. We have approached the Indian Embassy and the authorities concerned in India with this request. We have also offered five tickets free of charge for deserving workers from other sectors who have registered with the embassy for repatriation.”
The ticket fare for each person on a 180-seat chartered flight is estimated as QR2,000.
