Why Qatar refused Syrians and Yemenis to attend the 2022 World Cup
A number of Syrian refugees have become disappointed after their attempts to attend the World Cup in Qatar were stalled due to restrictive action by the Qatari government, after Qatar denied hundreds of Syrians to attend the Doha World Cup matches that started the day before yesterday, without reasons or justifications.
Unexplained persecution
Informed sources revealed that many Syrians were denied visas to attend the World Cup in an apparent persecution of Syrians. Sources confirmed that a large number of Syrians tried to visit Qatar to watch the 2022 World Cup matches, but the Qatari authorities refused to grant them entry visas, despite their attempt to travel through European airports.
Many Yemenis said that Qatar has canceled the Haya cards that were issued to them and denied them entry to Qatar to attend the games without any legal or stated reasons.
Diagonal paradox
For its part, Human Rights Watch said that Qatar has in previous years signed the first law in the Gulf region that defines the procedures and conditions of asylum application in the country, but it does not meet Qatar’s international obligations, especially with regard to its restrictions on freedom of movement and expression, where article 1 of the asylum law in Qatar refers to a refugee as a “political refugee”, describes a refugee as “any person outside his country of nationality, or the country where he has his permanent place of residence if he is stateless, and is unable or unwilling to return to the country due to a well-founded fear of being at risk of being sentenced to the death or corporal punishment, torture, cruel or degrading treatment, or persecution, due to his race, religion, social group, or political views” and article 15 prohibits refugees from being subjected to “persecution in any other country” “Article 9 grants recognized refugees the right to obtain a travel document for work, unemployment benefits, worship or litigation, as well as access to government health care, education and housing services.”
