Sudden Expulsions Raise Fears Of Religious Erasure Of Qatari Bahá’í Community

GENEVA—30 April 2026—In an unexpected move, over 40 percent of Qatar’s Bahá’í population faces imminent expulsion from the country.

The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) is alarmed that the Qatari government is carrying out a deliberate campaign of religious erasure aimed at one of the religious communities that has been present in the region for over 100 years, and whose presence in Qatar—well before the establishment of the modern Qatari state—is documented as spanning many decades.

Qatar’s small and law-abiding Baha’i community has been systematically reduced in size over decades through patterns of discrimination and pressure, including imprisonment, family separation, denial of employment, and forced departure from the country, solely on the basis of their Bahá’í identity.

In recent weeks, the situation has further deteriorated, with nearly half of the remaining Bahá’ís in the country being targeted, including through unlawful detention, threats and intimidation, and notifications of non renewal of work permits, forcing them to leave the country.

The majority of those targeted belong to long established Bahá’í families in Qatar, known to be Bahá’í for many generations and decades prior to the country’s independence, and therefore have no other homeland to turn to.

Families face the risk of separation or fragmentation, while these measures will force the closure of many successful family run businesses built over decades and cut off the livelihoods of numerous Bahá’í families.

Collectively, this is an unjustified and devastating escalation of the systematic discrimination against the Bahá’í community.

Last year, in a decision that was widely applauded everywhere, Qatar’s Court of Cassation reversed a lower court verdict against a senior Baha’i dignitary and confirmed the right of religious freedom and freedom of expression.

It should also be noted that what Bahá’ís are experiencing in Qatar stands in stark contradiction to the positive role that Gulf countries have played for many years in promoting the values of coexistence, diversity, and tolerance.

The BIC calls on Qatar’s government to refrain from using immigration tools to erase an entire religious minority and to uphold its constitutional guarantees of freedom of belief. It urges the government to stop the deportations and renew all residency permits. It also urges it to halt acts of discrimination and forced displacement, whether through intolerable pressures on daily life or through deportation, and calls for the renewal of all documents and permits.

Last year’s welcome legal precedent offers the hope that the Qatari authorities will decide to reverse this unfortunate process while it is still possible; in a time of regional difficulties, we appeal to their sense of justice and fairness.

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