Qatar Airways freely operates in and out of Nigeria along with its citizens. However, the country’s anti-visa policy hinders Nigerians from visiting the Middle Eastern country, Chinedu Eze reports
Qatar Airways started operating into Nigeria about 10 years ago. Within the first five years, it justified its operation to the country by its record high load factor, which prompted the airline to start daily operations from Lagos to Doha, its capital.
In spite of the progress it is recording in its Nigerian operations, Qatar has maintained a policy of not issuing visas to Nigerians, except the applicant has a sponsor who resides in Qatar.
What this means is that as a Nigerian, you cannot travel to Qatar, except you are on transit, which means that you cannot get out of the airport into the city. Qatar completed its new Hamad International Airport, Doha in 2014 with about 90 million annual passenger capacity and it was built largely for transit passengers for the operational hub of Qatar Airways.
While Qatar has countries that it allows their citizens to visit the country without visa and others it issues visa to on arrival, Nigeria is blacklisted by the Middle East country. The policy is extremely unpleasant to the extent that Nigerians that work for the airline are not allowed to visit Qatar, sources close to the airline confirmed.
Qatar is a peninsular Arab country, which terrain comprises arid desert and a long Persian Gulf shoreline of beaches and dunes. Also, on the coast is the capital, Doha, known for its skyscrapers that echo what is obtained in Dubai with architecture inspired by ancient Islamic design and artistry.
In 2014 when this writer attended the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Doha, it was extremely difficult to obtain visa because the country bluntly said it does not issue visas to Nigerians. So IATA had to source visa through its own connections for the Nigerian contingent invited by the world body for the event.
Recently a Nigerian, Adaobi Okigbo narrated her experience to THISDAY.
“On November 19 2015, I accessed Qatar Airways website with the intention of purchasing a ticket to visit Doha and Dubai on a short visit. The visit to Dubai was the major reason for the trip as we had planned a reunion of our secondary school classmates from all over the world in that location. Having a friend working in Doha, I opted to leave Nigeria some days earlier than the planned reunion dates of 25th – 28th February (20160.
“Before buying my ticket, I confirmed from the website that the airline was able to process visa for visitors to Qatar, in fact this information was very prominently displayed on its site. I proceeded to purchase my ticket and on Tuesday, January 19th (2016), a month to my travel date, I decided to start the visa processing.
“I visited Qatar Airways website again, this time to complete the visa process. The site redirected me to a site called Discover Qatar, which I believe is the official information center for all visitors to Qatar and had been set up by the Qatari government to provide accurate and timely travel information to visitors. I was required to complete a simple form but the first unpleasant surprise was that Nigeria was not listed in the list of countries, under the pull down menu for Nationality. To my shock and utter dismay, I received an almost instant response from the site informing me that the government of Qatar does not issue visas to Nigerian nationals.” Okigbo narrated.
Okigbo said she was upset by that experience, which made her raise a number of questions: “If we, as Nigerians are not good enough to visit their country, what exactly are they doing running an airline in ours? What is the Nigerian government’s stance on Qataris visiting Nigeria? Do we issue visas to them or are they also not allowed in Nigeria? Why would a country like Qatar discriminate against Nigerians in such a general manner and it is acceptable to its Nigerian staff? Why is the Federal Government of Nigeria allowing the company to run a business in Nigeria, whilst its host country feels we are all criminals?”
She also wrote: “I would really like to get some answers to these questions as this matter has upset me quite terribly. Anyway, as a sensible Nigerian, I went to the Qatar Airways office, where by the way, I met some really nice Nigerians, and asked for a full refund. To add insult to injury, the airline will be deducting a 10% fee for cancellation, in which world is this fair and equitable?
Top official of the Nigerian Immigration Service told THISDAY that Qatar, which has a population of about 2.169 million and area of about 4,468 square meters does not have any embassy in Africa, but its airline operates to many African destinations.
The Immigration official said Qatari issues cable visas for work permit and residence, which used to last for five years, “but since 2014 obtaining such visas has become very difficult.”
THISDAY also learnt that Nigeria gains nothing from Qatar Airways’ operation in Nigeria besides the taxes because the airline does not employ Nigerians as cockpit or cabin crew and while it does not have embassy in Africa, many of its cabin and cockpit crew and other personnel in its Qatar Airways hub in Doha are Africans largely from Kenya, Ethiopia and Egypt and other countries in the continent; but no Nigerian personnel. So except the handful of workers in Lagos for its Nigerian operation, Qatar does not have Nigerians in its employ.
Over the years, Nigerians have alleged that officials of the Ministry of Aviation have been shortchanging Nigerians in their Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) they sign with many countries. Examples are replete where countries that refused to allow Nigerian airlines to operate into their countries are given many frequencies by the Ministry.
About two years ago Arik Air indicated interest to fly to Brazil and in accordance to the reciprocity arrangement, Gol, a major carrier in Brazil was billed to operate to Lagos, but while Nigerian government quickly gave Gol the passage and frequency to operate to Nigeria, Brazil refused to acquiesce Arik Air its own request. Arik Air travelled to Brazil more than four times to meet the agency responsible for issuing BASA and commercial agreements with foreign carriers, but Gol representatives visited Abuja once and got all they required.
Concerned industry operators and other Nigerians say Nigerian Government makes our country cheap and deny its citizens job and other opportunities but freely gives frequencies to foreign carriers.
Despite the revenues Qatar Airways generate from Nigeria, no Nigerian is employed as major staff in the airline; no Nigerian pilot is working with the airline and at its Lagos office, Qatar’s Nigerian employees are junior workers that do not take critical decisions on the operations of the airline.
Executive Chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison in an interview with THISDAY said the Nigerian government must review its commercial agreements with international airlines in their BASA and should allow Nigerian airlines and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to negotiate commercial agreement deals with these foreign airlines. He faulted the current situation, whereby the Ministry of Aviation is currently doing the negotiation whereby instead of protecting the interest of airlines and Nigeria they pander to parochial interests and favour these foreign carriers at the detriment of Nigerian airlines and interests.
Meggison said these policies from government that favour the foreign airlines have put Nigerian carriers and Nigerian interests at a disadvantage. He said there is no need for Nigerians to lament about the capital flight by foreign airlines, which move huge amounts of money from Nigeria to their operational headquarters in Europe, America and Middle East every week because government policies facilitated such repatriation of funds without their investing anything in the country.
Industry operators believe that Nigeria would be given the respect it deserves if it does not freely and willingly give out its frequencies as THISDAY learnt that Qatar Airways has the flight rights to operate seven times a week to Nigeria. That is excessive generosity because Nigeria does not have any airline to reciprocate and Qatar so far maximises the flight rights by operating daily to Nigeria.
Qatar Airways Lagos airport manager, Hashim, confirmed to THISDAY that for a Nigerian to get a Qatari visa, he ought to have a sponsor who is resident in Qatar; that is the new policy for those countries that are not listed among the nations that its citizens are allowed to visit the country.
As a Nigerian you must have a visa before you will be allowed to enter Qatar but it is difficult to obtain such visa and it is also difficult to get a sponsor resident in that small country to enable you get a visa.
The following nationals are however permitted to apply for an entry Visa when they arrive Qatar. These are people from Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and Vatican City.
There is no African country mentioned but Qatar Airways daily operates to African destinations and Nigerians constitute the thousands of passenger that transit from Doha to various destinations in China and other parts of Asia. Recently some Nigerians travelling to destinations in Europe and Americas transit through Doha. The country is rising to compete with Dubai, while its airline is measuring up to Emirates, but it lacks the visa liberality of Dubai. And its obnoxious policy on visa for African countries may become its drawback in the long run as the continent is projected to be the bulwark of world’s economic growth in the near future.
Nigeria should dignify itself by adopting measures in bilateral policies that define its interests first and also dictate to other nations the conditions they will have to meet to come into the country to do business, having in mind that it has over 170 million people, a large market with teeming population of the young that needs jobs.
