Paul, a 26-year-old Ugandan migrant worker, told his story to 20 Minutes in a previous article.
Deprived of a passport by his ex-employer, he didn't know how to leave Qatar, which had nothing of the El Dorado that he had been promised when he arrived.
If Paul has since managed to recover his passport, his troubles are not over.
Stuck in a detention center, he tells us about his situation.
From our Special Envoy in Doha,
We had left Paul, this Ugandan worker stranded in Qatar after his passport was confiscated by his former boss, with no real hope of seeing his situation evolve, but still determined to move heaven and earth so that someone, in this labyrinth Qatari administrative officer, finally agrees to listen to his story.
Ten days later, the young man is still stuck in the land of mirages, but he finally sees a return to his family in Kampalaa, after multiple steps, each more exhausting than the other.
First a day spent negotiating at the Residential Affairs Office.
This former delivery man on a motorcycle fired from his job with the only fault of having been the victim of a road accident, then pulls out a promise: that of seeing the Qatari police go and get his passport from his former boss, on the condition of having a plane ticket to return home.
Hope, finally, but one question however: what is the promise of these policemen worth when we know that Paul is constantly being carried around from service to service, each passing the buck to better get rid of him?
Paul confides his doubts during the telephone contacts that we manage to establish: "I'm going to sleep outside to be at the opening of the offices tomorrow morning and that someone confirms to me what I was told".
A few hours dozing off (more than sleeping) later, unsurprisingly, new interlocutor, new story.
No more question of giving him back his passport but he is invited to go to his embassy to solve the problem.
Paul asks us to accompany him and he does well: we have to play the important part with a security guard who is far too zealous.
“There is no one at this time, come back tomorrow”.
Nope,
A Ugandan embassy official, a mirrored wardrobe in a flashy gray suit, finally agrees to see Paul.
He listens carefully to his story and concludes: "Your boss has no right to keep your passport, give me his number."
A discussion then took place in Arabic between the Ugandan official and the boss of Limitless Delivery WLL., the company that provides labor to Talabat, the local Deliverro in Qatar for whom this father of a young girl worked. one and a half year old girl.
The latter maintains that Paul is lying, he has never, ever held his passport.
On the leather sofa in the large, all-marble hall of the embassy, Paul is flabbergasted.
“How dare he say that?
".
Paul is 26 years old, he is Ugandan and has been working in Qatar for a year.
Finally, was working, before an accident.
Since then, he no longer has a passport, no salary, and the authorities won't let him go home.
He tells his story to @AymericLeGallhttps://t.co/sAt9rVnT8u
— J.Laloye (@Zonemixte) November 29, 2022
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Filing a complaint and returning the passport
Not convinced either by the boss's promises, the member of the embassy thinks for two minutes and invites us to follow her to her car, heading for the Al Saad police station, in the eastern suburbs of Doha.
On the way, Paul takes the opportunity to explain the details of his situation, how his boss took a large part of his salary for no reason, his dismissal, the locking of his passport, his second job in construction, his nights out without eat and his obstacle course to recover his papers and leave the country as soon as possible.
At the wheel, the official does not seem surprised.
What surprises him, however, is the presence of a Western journalist at his side.
“Why are you interested in this story?
What do you think of the situation of migrant workers in Qatar?
How do you feel about the France team?
".
Many questions, no time to answer everything, here we are.
On the spot, Paul's compatriot takes matters into his own hands and negotiates with the police.
Kept away, we understand that he filed an official complaint.
Law enforcement seems to be taking the matter seriously and the embassy employee returns with good news: “Paul's passport will be returned to him.
But not just his, that of all Limitless Delivery workers.
And he will receive his unpaid wages.
On the bench of this neighborhood police station, Paul cannot believe his eyes.
He who saw himself stuck here for many months, even years, now imagines himself back at home with his wife and daughter.
“Life is hard here, very hard”
The next day, the young man confirms to us by message: "My friend, they are taking me to the deportation center [this is what Paul calls the detention center in Doha], I have my passport in my hands, I I hope to fly to Uganda soon".
If all the promises have not been kept, Paul not having seen the color of the 2000 riyals that had been promised to him to compensate for his months of unpaid wages, this one is no longer close to that.
"I know I'm going to return without the money I thought I'd make by coming here, but I'm going to find my family and that's the most important thing."
It was just a week ago.
Since then, Paul has been detained in this detention center located about thirty kilometers from downtown Doha, in the industrial zone, far from the glamor of the city-state.
Surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire and guarded by many watchtowers, the place looks like a prison.
Impossible to see him in person, the police only invite us from their large office to give him a call by videoconference.
We give his serial number, a guard calls him.
On the screen, the young man never loses his smile, even if he admits to us that “life is hard here, very hard”.
He can say no more, the guards are never far away.
"I'll tell you all about it when I get out of here," he promises.
In the meantime, he asks us to bring him back the suitcases that he had to leave when he arrived and that he still hasn't found.
At the bottom of an almost adjacent courtyard, they have been lying around for a week without anyone having seen fit to bring them back to him.
They still have to be scanned to see if there are any electrical devices inside.
Meticulous, the policeman orders us to search his personal belongings from top to bottom in front of him.
A stroke of a marker on them and there they are thrown into the back of a pick-up truck waiting for them to be delivered to him.
Finally maybe.
Before leaving, Paul asks us to pass on a message to his wife: “Tell her I'm fine, tell her to be patient and not to worry”.
To this day, the boy has no idea when he will be able to find her.
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