Beaufort native stuck in Qatar: 'I came here with a very naive mind, thinking everything was gonna be wonderful'

The cat’s name is “Trouble.”

She was on the streets of Doha, Qatar, in pretty bad shape. Cuts. Cigarette burns.

Beaufort native Robert Foster and his wife rescued Trouble in November 2014. At the time, Foster was almost eight months into a three-year contract with Hamad Medical Corp. The expatriate had come to Qatar in March 2014 as a senior operations manager, supervising Hamad’s air-and-ground ambulance services.

But Foster was laid off in January.

Now he can’t leave the country.

He still owes more than $86,000 on a start-up loan he took out with Qatar National Bank, he said Thursday during a video call from Doha. That debt caused the Qatari government to place a travel ban on his passport, he said. While U.S. State Department spokesman Niles Cole could not confirm the nature of the travel ban, he wrote in an email to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette that Foster was “barred exit from Qatar by Qatar immigration authorities.”

Foster managed to get his wife out of the country. She’s on St. Helena Island with his father, working to bring him home.

Meanwhile he’s stuck in their old Doha apartment, where Trouble’s meows echo off the bare walls.

“I came here with a very naive mind, thinking everything was gonna be wonderful,” Foster said.

The Plan

It was simple: stay in Qatar at least three years and come home with a good chunk of money to pay off some debts and buy a house in Beaufort.

Foster, a 1984 Beaufort High School grad and former Navy Reserve corpsman, had been to Doha before. A veteran of three Middle East military tours, he’d visited the city for rest and relaxation. He considered his emergency medical background — he’d also served as a flight paramedic in California and Arizona — well-suited for the position with Hamad.

He was slated to make approximately $8,200 a month, according to a scanned copy of a signed-and-dated offer letter — appearing on Hamad Medical Corp. letterhead — that he emailed to the newspapers on Friday. Gabrielle Foster, 34, shared a printed copy of her husband’s signed-and-dated employment contract that specified a three-year agreement beginning March 21, 2014.

Considering his income — about $98,000 annually — Foster felt comfortable taking out an approximately $96,000 loan from Qatar National Bank in July 2014.

Hamad covered their housing, he said, but their Al Abbib Gardens apartment wasn’t furnished. The couple put the money toward home furnishings, appliances and two cars. And Foster used some of the money to pay down credit card debt he had back in the States, to pay child support and to reimburse his father, Arthur Foster, for a personal loan to assist with relocation to Qatar. Robert Foster had financial difficulties before. He declared bankruptcy in October 2005 in the wake of a divorce.

Just days after his 50th birthday, Robert Foster received a letter. The letter, dated Jan. 25, stated he had been terminated after a “recent review of … future workforce requirements.” The newspaper attempted to confirm Foster’s employment with Hamad, but the company did not respond by Friday night.

Foster said plunging oil prices caused his — and others’ — layoffs.

Over 1,000 staffers at Hamad “face layoffs, with some losing their jobs this week,” the Doha News reported Jan. 28. Those health care cuts came on the heels of “an estimated 3,000” layoffs in Qatar’s petroleum industry in 2015, according to the news agency.

In early February, the Fosters’ bank accounts in Qatar were frozen.

To continue to eat and make loan payments, they sold their cars, appliances and furniture.

But the layoffs eroded the value of their belongings. Everyone, they said, was trying to sell their stuff.

No Vacation

Before Foster was laid off, the couple put some of the loan money toward a vacation.

In February, as the vacation neared, Foster asked Hamad if he could still take the trip. The company said yes. He thought he might use the vacation to escape Qatar.

On Feb. 26, the day of the trip, at the airport, he discovered he was banned from traveling because of the outstanding loan. The bank, he said, had been threatening him with arrest since his accounts were frozen. The situation worsening, he decided his wife should leave the country.

The State Department’s “Country Specific Information” on Qatar advises Americans who go there to work that they “will be barred from exiting Qatar upon termination of employment if you have a current loan on account with a Qatari bank.” Qatari law favors employers over employees, the State Department’s website says.

“We were living a dream. We were promised it was gonna last,” Gabrielle Foster said Thursday at her father-in-law’s home on St. Helena.

“And it didn’t happen. It became a nightmare, a horror movie. That’s what it is to me.”

Gabrielle Foster and her father-in-law, Arthur Foster, have met with officials from U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford’s office. She said she’s emailed dozens of news outlets in hopes of getting their story out.

She still has the Qatar Airways tags on her luggage from when she landed in Savannah on Feb. 29.

She also brought home some of her husband’s clothes, crammed in a hard, yellow suitcase.

As of Thursday morning, she hadn’t yet opened it.

Leopards and Lamborghinis

There’s a sheikh who lives near Al Abbib Gardens who has a Lamborghini and a leopard, Robert Foster said. In fact, there are several sheikhs nearby.

Outside of his apartment, Unit 18, the Doha Expressway is visible to the west. A group of children could be seen playing around a bonfire Thursday night from Foster’s roof. His home was dark, the lights off to save on electricity.

He looked into his laptop, the “tool” he hopes will get him out of Qatar. Between pulls on a cigarette, he talked about staying strong for his wife and father. He’s not sleeping well, he said. He lives in constant fear of being arrested.

He said he’s sharing his story because he doesn’t want the same things to happen to other Americans.

“Grand illusions,” he called them.

Naivete.

His next loan payment is due April 1. He’s worried his frozen account will be auto-debited, which will result in a bounced check. Which is a crime, he said, one that might get him arrested.

He guesses he’ll have to vacate his apartment on March 24. He doesn’t know where he’ll go.

The cat won’t go with him.

“Trouble” has a home with a friend at the Mexican consulate, Foster said. At least for a couple weeks.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Beaufort native stuck in Qatar: 'I came here with a very naive mind, thinking everything was gonna be wonderful' ."