Date: May 30, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Qatar council backs draft residency law for foreigners Agence France Presse DOHA: Qatar has moved closer to granting permanent residency to foreigners after its senior legislative body approved a draft law, first announced in the wake of the ongoing Gulf crisis. State media reported the Shura Council agreed Monday to back a law that would grant residency to expatriates who provide valuable services as well as to the children of Qatari women married to non-Qataris. “The Advisory [Shura] Council approved a draft law on permanent residency,” the Qatar News Agency reported Tuesday. Permanent residents would be allowed to have free state education, health care and be given the right to own property. It is thought to be the first such law proposed by one of the energy-rich Gulf states. The plan was first announced last August, just two months after Qatar was boycotted by neighboring former allies in a bitter diplomatic dispute. Like other nations in the region, Qatar relies massively on foreign labor. Its current population of 2.71 million, a record, is made up of almost 90 percent nonnationals, many helping the country prepare to host the 2022 World Cup. There are some 315,000 Qatari nationals. The proposal will now be considered by Qatar’s Cabinet and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani before it becomes law.