Qatar has inaugurated two visa centres in Bangladesh, one in Dhaka and the other in Sylhet, as part of the state's efforts to facilitate and streamline procedures for bringing in expatriate workforce.
The inaugurating of Qatar Visa Centres in Bangladesh is part of the opening of 20 centres in eight countries (the first of which was opened in Sri Lanka in October) to speed up and streamline the procedures of expatriate workers and follow them up by authorities in Qatar.
Major General Mohammed Ahmed al-Ateeq, director general, Passports Directorate, said that the launch of the visa centres in Bangladesh was part of the project to establish visa centre overseas, which aims to facilitate all procedures for obtaining residence in Qatar, in terms of medical examination, forensic evidence and fingerprints, to make it easier for an expatriate to work in Qatar and start work immediately upon arrival.
Major Abdullah Khalifa al-Mohannadi, director, recruitment support services department at Passports Directorate, pointed out that the opening of two new centres in Bangladesh comes as part of the completion of the project stages and the continuation of the efforts of Qatar to protect the rights of expatriates and facilitate their work procedures. “This will be followed by the opening of the rest of the centres successively in other countries during the coming period.” 
He explained that these centres would provide the conducting of medical examinations and the signing of employment contracts for expatriates in their countries before coming to Qatar, adding that the move reflects Qatar's keenness to ensure the protection and safety of expatriates under simplified and efficient recruitment procedures.
These centres provide services including fingerprinting for the expatriate worker, registration of vital data, conducting medical examinations, and signing of a contract of employment, in order to ensure the facilitation of these procedures and the preservation and protection of the rights of the expatriate and the employer before travelling to Qatar as well as avoiding the return of the ineligible cases.
On the procedures, he explained that Qatar Visa Centres will enable both the employer and the expatriate worker to perform their role accurately through an integrated recruitment system after employer's registration on the Ministry of Interior website and issuing the reference number for the expatriate to complete his procedures through the visa centre.
The Qatar Visa Centres are established in co-operation between by the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Qatar also seeks to expand the services provided by these centers in the following stages.
Qatar ambassador to Bangladesh Ahmed bin Mohamed al-Dehaimi, Major General Abdullah Salim al-Ali, and Brigadier Abdullah Ahmad al-Ansari along with Bangladeshi Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Nurul Islam, a number of senior government officials and heads of diplomatic missions attended the inauguration of the centres.
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