Sources told The Peninsula yesterday that all mechanisms to introduce the facility are now in place and it’s just a matter of deciding when to introduce the new exit permit facility.
The new procedure to be introduced will have companies allotted a user name and a password, which can only be activated by the concerned company officials. The traveler’s details — such as name and passport number — are keyed in and the company will simply type out that they have no objection to a departure, for whatever reason it may be.
The message is then passed online and at the airport itself, the immigration officer will tally the details on his or her computer, see the no-objection note, and the passenger will simply breeze through after getting the passport stamped.
The new procedure, however, may lead to the piquant situation of the ubiquitous mandoops (liaison officers), being rendered jobless. A mandoop told this newspaper: “There is not much we can do.” The exit permit formality is perhaps the last bastion of immigration formalities to fall to the e-government onslaught.
Late last year, the government began issuing tourist and business visas online, greatly reducing the pressure at Doha International Airport’s arrival hall.
Quelle: The Peninsula On-line, 06.04.2006
