The initial relief among the lakhs of Keralites in Qatar has started giving way to anxiety as there are no signs of an end to the crisis brought about by the trade and diplomatic embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia, UAE and their allies. It is entering the fourth week but the general feeling among them is that Doha should not and need not give in to the pressures from those countries.
The escalation in Arabian Gulf’s worst diplomatic dispute in years since the handing over of a 13-point list of conditions by Saudi Arabia and its ally nations to Qatar and that country’s refusal to completely comply with those demands have enhanced the worries of expatriates in Qatar about how the situation is going to develop in the days after Eid’ul Fitr.
“When this embargo was imposed, there were worries, especially about food availability, among the people. But soon things stabilised. We had hoped that the crisis would end by Eid but that has not happened. The worry has now become more real. Expatriates have even begun talking about the possibilities of a conflict,” says Subair, a Thrissur native working in Doha.
According to journalists working with Kerala newspapers in Doha, life is still normal in the Qatar capital and its suburbs and there are no signs of any crisis prevailing in the country as far as the native people and expatriates are concerned. However, reports on “renewed threats” from the “anti-Qatar axis” are causing discomfort, they say.
“Air fares have gone up to levels unbearable to even medium and high income group expatriates and that is expected in such a situation. However, the Qatari Riyal has not suffered a serious jolt so far, especially in comparison with the Indian Rupee, and that is a big relief,” says a senior journalist of a Kerala-based newspaper in Doha.
What has caused the sudden escalation in anxiety among the expatriate community, including the more-than-300,000 Keralites, in Qatar is the list of “threatening” conditions handed over to Qatari Government by the “axis” through Kuwaiti authorities.
“The Government and almost all the people here consider these conditions as unreasonable and impractical,” he says.
Even Keralites in Qatar who normally would have nothing to do with international politics seem to be of the view that the blockade by Saudi Arabia and others is unjustified.
“They must be using the terrorism card as a tool to attract attention. Their main targets are Qatari media, especially Al-Jazeera TV, and its openness,” says MK Nair, an auditor with European firm in Doha.
As per reports, the most important demands in the 13-point list of conditions Saudi Arabia and others have proposed to Qatar are closure of Al-Jazeera, drastic scale-back in cooperation with Iran and removal of Turkish troops from Qatari soil. Doha has already termed this list as something that interferes with its foreign policy and sovereignty.
“They have given a ten-day deadline. Nobody in Qatar thinks that this is going to work. The expatriates here know that they will be the first victims if the crisis snowballs into a conflict but the beauty is that they don’t want the Qatari authorities to give in to the pressures from outside. They seem to love this country,” says the journalist.
That feeling of love for the country they work in is not unfounded as Sulaiman Muhammad, a plumber who had worked in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for seven years and has been in Doha for the past three years, says. “In Riyadh, I used to fear the law. In Doha, I respect the law. That is all I have to say about it,” says Sulaiman.