Residents call for mechanism to help jobless defaulters tide over loan crisis

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Many expatriates are reportedly stranded in the country after losing their jobs and are unable to repay the loans that they had taken while being employed earlier. A number of those who have defaulted on repayment of loans are facing court cases and struggling to make ends meet, it is understood.

“At least 60 people have approached me in recent months for legal intervention after being served notices by banks from where they had taken loans while being employed,” said Nizar Kochery, legal expert and rights activist.

There have also been instances of expatriates pooling funds to help repay the bank loans of friends who have lost their jobs.

If a favourable condition for re-employment of jobless defaulters is facilitated by the local authorities, including banks, insurance companies and officials of the Ministries of Labour and Interior, the issue can be sorted out and no one will default on repayment, say residents.

While loans need to be repaid in a mutually-agreed-upon period, some banks issue notices to borrowers after the latter default on repayment immediately after losing their jobs.

Gulf Times found out that many of those who had defaulted were willing to repay their loans provided they had jobs. “Without a job, how could a person like me repay the loan?” argued an expatriate, who lost his job while working for a utility firm.

The resident said he did not even want to go home until he had repaid the loan. “However, my previous employers turned down my request for even a six-month permission to work outside their sponsorship, with which I could have repaid my entire loan,” he added.

Many banks in the region and Qatar had extended liberal loans to citizens as well as expatriates. “However, in the wake of the global economic slowdown, many people lost their jobs and were unable to repay their loans,” said a South Asian diplomat whose embassy was approached by many of its expatriates regarding similar issues.

A senior community member wondered what banks and sponsors stood to gain by detaining an individual who had defaulted on loan repayment after losing his job. “At present, there is no local authority where such a person can go and air his grievances, leave alone writing off the loan that has been extended to him,” said Kochery.

At the same time, he said, there were employers who would not even pay the end-of- service benefits to employees who either leave the country after resigning or whose sponsorship is cancelled.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the rights activist said an expatriate sought the intervention of Qatar’s central bank after receiving a notice from a bank about the freezing of his loan recently. The authority came to his rescue immediately.

However, Kochery said: “How many expatriates would dare to approach a premier institution like the country’s central bank to deal with such a vexed issue?”