By Andrew Warshaw
November 25 – Zahir Belounis, the journeyman footballer trapped in Qatar claiming 18 months of unpaid wages, may be on the verge of winning his battle to get out of the country. The plight of the French-Algerian, who says he is a ‘destroyed’ man after being forced to sell all his possessions, has caused outrage among human rights organisations and has added to global concern over Qatar’s notorious kafala employment system that ties migrant workers to so-called ‘sponsors’.
Belounis, who is on medication for depression, is understood to have been advised that he may receive an exit visa this week.
“He has met with Qatari authorities and has been told the exit visa may happen on Wednesday, ” his brother Mahdi told Insideworldfootball, speaking from Paris. “If that’s the case he may leave on Saturday. But they’ve done that before and he’s been living in an empty house.”
“We were supposed to have a decision yesterday or today but once again the deadline has been pushed back so I’m not 100 percent confident it will happen. How can I believe them this time?”
Organisers of the 2022 World Cup have consistently been at pains to stress that steps are being taken to amend the kafala system and make it far less restrictive.
But reports circulated over the weekend highlighted a similar case involving well-known British sailor Tracy Edwards, famed for skippering the first all-female crew in the prestigious Whitbread round-the-world Yacht Race and for receiving an OBE.
Edwards, who moved her family to Qatar in 2003, was quoted as saying that when things went sour, “I could not leave, I could not pay my rent, I had to sell my furniture to generate money. Zahir Belounis apparently had to do the same. That’s scary.”
Explaining her own situation she went on: “We were supposed to receive £6m from Qatar Sports International …. in a move to make Qatar one of the outstanding sailing hubs in the world.”
“Part of the project was the Oryx Quest 05 race round the world, held in 2005 and a great success. It was organized and financed by me. I never received money from QSI, they claimed we never had a contract. I got an email thanking me for the great success in organizing and financing the race.”
“I had to fund it with a loan which bankrupted me, my house went into collateral. QSI was dissolved while the race was held and renamed: Qatar Sports Investment. Different name, but the same people.’
“I first flew back with my people to England, but then I received a request from my ‘sponsor’ the Qatari Foreign Minister to come back to solve the financial issues. At this point, I thought I would get my money. So I flew back, against the advice of my family and friends and my own gut feeling. Then things got very nasty, very quickly.”
“My exit visa was denied, just like in Zahir’s case. And I had the feeling I was being followed and that my phone was tapped. I was really scared, I only communicated with my family via coded text messages. And it was impossible to get in touch with my sponsor – all the people that I had thought I had a network with vanished all of a sudden.”
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