the right to property. As stateless persons are only allowed a travel document, asserting
their statelessness, their right to freedom of movement is also severely curtailed; while
some countries may allow them to apply for and attain refugee status, many other
countries will refuse them entry altogether.
39. Lastly, Qatar requires its stateless community to obtain approval prior to getting married,
whether that is to a Qatari citizen, a non-Qatari citizen or another stateless person.33
40. There has been no independent research conducted or objectively verifiable information given on
what has happened since, whether the situation of any stateless individuals who were rendered
stateless was resolved or whether they have obtained any other nationality.
41. In 2017, the head of Qatar’s NHRC, himself of the Al Murra, told a now member of the RRC that
the matter had become insignificant and that most had been reintegrated into Qatari society,
with full rights. The truth appears more complicated: an indeterminate number have certainly
regained rights in Qatar, but others - the number is not known - may continue to be stateless,
either amongst the 1200 persons registered by UNHCR, or, perhaps not: the government has
been opaque about this issue. Others still remain in Saudi Arabia where most appear to have
taken up Saudi Arabian citizenship, if they did not have it prior to 2005.
Returns to Qatar and threatened family separation following the GCC dispute: an
open wound
42. In the weeks and months following Qatar’s June 2017 break in relations with Saudi Arabia and
other countries, a small number of families and individuals sought to re-enter Qatar. The fate of at
least one - Zayed Al Murra, who is thought to have spent up to a month in the land between Saudi
Arabia and Qatar, is unknown after Human Rights Watch took up his case.34
43. While it is not known how many others may have entered Qatar from June 2017 onwards - nor
under what circumstances, members of one family of 10 managed to leave Saudi Arabia and
presented themselves at the Qatar port of entry with Saudi Arabia, Abu Samara. They had been in
Saudi Arabia between 2005-2017.
44. In September 2018, the RRC viewed film clips, purported to have been made by members of the
family. In them, Fahad Bin Saleh al-Ghufran Al Marri, a man perhaps in his 30s, states that he has
called on the Amir, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, to restore his citizenship. His brother,
Abdulhadi Saleh al-Ghufran Al Marri makes the same call, noting that he has not been able to find
employment. Another brother, Mohammed Saleh Abdulhadi al-Ghufran Al Marri added that since
he has not been accorded citizenship since being allowed to return, he has not been able to
access health care; and that he was promised a university place. The family also consists of four
sisters, and younger brothers, the former of whom who did not make videos appealing for the
restoration of their citizenship. The Institute and RRC have not, however, been able to verify that
33
Al-Karama, Qatar entry of the 2016 annual report, accessible at:
https://www.alkarama.org/alkpages/annrep2016/qatar2016_en.html
34 See: Human Rights Watch - Qatar/Saudi Arabia: Allow Man Trapped at Border to Enter / Stateless Clan Victim of Gulf Dispute, 1
July 2017, accessible at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/01/qatar/saudi-arabia-allow-man-trapped-border-enter
9