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Apr 23, 2020

Qatar pardons 17 Nepali prisoners among others

FA News Desk
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani

Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani has given pardon to 17 Nepalis serving jail term today.

Qatari Amir had given general amnesty on Wednesday to number of prisoners including Nepalis in consideration of the health and humanitarian conditions in light of the current situation in the Qatar as a result of the pandemic novel coronavirus, the Embassy of Nepal in the State of Qatar sources said.

According to the Nepal Embassy, among those migrant workers released from jail term were sentenced on the charges of drugs cases 13 people, two on petty theft, one of alcoholic drinking offences and one for unlawful cheating charges.

Embassy of Nepal in Doha of Qatar. Facebbok.com

The prisoners were pardoned on the occasion of Ramadan festival which begins Thursday April 23 with the sighting of the crescent moon, which means the start of the holy month cannot be predicted precisely.

Earlier, the Nepal Embassy in Qatar had made special request to the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani for the general amnesty to those migrant workers inside the cell.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the Prime Minister of the State of Qatar had assured him about the Nepalis migrant workers in Qatar about their security and welfare matters.

PM Oli sharing information through his Twitter social media had added further that “The Qatari PM told this while I had a telephone talks today and discussed the security and welfare issues about the Nepalese migrant workers in Qatar. Also, I expressed my heartfelt thanks to the Qatari government for giving pardon to 17 Nepali migrant workers who are serving jail terms on the various charges.”

This is not a first time that the Emir had pardon Nepali migrant workers. In the previous years too Qatar government had freed numbers of Nepali migrant workers who were serving prison time on various charges.

Letter of Nepal Embassy

The Qatar government had also waived off a fine thousands of Riyal equivalent to millions of Nepalese rupees levied on Nepalis who were convicted in drug trafficking case. 

Those who pardoned Nepali prisoners will be transferred to detention centres before they are repatriated to their home.

Among the millions of migrant workers in Qatar from various countries, Nepal is second largest expatriate community in Qatar with nearly 500,000 Nepalis are living. Among those Nepalis workers, large numbers are under the raw-hand labourers working mostly in construction, landscaping, agriculture and household jobs.

However, there are semi-skilled and highly skilled expatriate’s Nepalese community who are working in the service and manufacturing business to administrative sectors, educational to medicinal areas, engineering administration to hospitality management jobs in Qatar.

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