Qatar warns its citizens against travelling to Egypt amid GCC Crisis

As the weekend drew to a close, the Department of Consular Affairs in the Qatari Foreign Ministry warned its citizens against travelling to Egypt, according to a Qatar News Agency report.

The ministry department released a statement saying that “this warning is because of the security measures imposed by the Egyptian authorities against Qataris when entering Egypt.”

Egypt joined in the siege of Qatar along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain more than three months ago. The country stopped issuing visas on arrival for Qatari nationals in July, but unlike its counterparts, Egypt did not call back their citizens to return home when the siege began. 

Seeing as around 200,000 Egyptians work and reside in Qatar, that fact does not come as much of a surprise.

The Qatar Foreign Ministry’s statement was released just days after a Qatari university student was denied a visa by Egyptian authorities on Wednesday.  According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, he was unable to attend his final exams at Cairo University as a result.

This is worrisome due to the fact that in July, Egyptian authorities had stated that stopping visas on arrival for Qataris would not apply to spouses of Egyptians or university students, who would be granted tourist visas on arrival.

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