Qatari authorities have ordered at least four members of the Baha’i community to leave the country since March 2026, forcing long-term residents to face deportation without legal recourse. Human Rights Watch reports that the individuals, all of whom hold leadership or administrative roles within Baha’i institutions, have been denied due process while being ordered to vacate their homes, a move that threatens to separate families and dismantle the local religious community.
Deportation Orders and Legal Challenges
The Ministry of Interior’s Search and Follow-Up department issued the orders against the four Baha’i members throughout the spring of 2026. According to Human Rights Watch, officials provided no legal justification for the directives and offered no mechanism for the affected individuals to appeal the decisions in court.
On March 4, a married couple—both of whom hold roles in the Baha’i community—were ordered to leave the country. The wife, a lifelong Qatar resident who serves as an auxiliary board member, and her husband, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is in Qatar, were initially granted a stay until the end of June to allow their two children to finish the school year. As a condition of this extension, authorities confiscated the family’s passports, requiring them to produce confirmed flight reservations to regain their documents.
A similar order was issued on April 7 to another 43-year-old auxiliary board member. Despite holding valid residency permits until August 2028, he was instructed to leave by mid-June. The man serves as the primary sponsor and caretaker for his 80-year-old mother, who has resided in Qatar for six decades. On April 22, Moin Yeganeh, a former member of the National Spiritual Assembly, was detained for a week before being released with a mandate to exit the country by mid-June. Yeganeh’s deportation threatens the legal residency status of his elderly parents, who rely on his sponsorship.
Precedent for Religious Repression
The current wave of deportations follows a series of state actions against the Baha’i faith in Qatar. In January 2025, authorities issued a deportation order against a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, reportedly offering to rescind the order if he converted to Sunni Islam.
In April 2025, Qatari officials arrested Remy Rowhani, the chair of the National Spiritual Assembly, sentencing him to five years in prison on charges that rights groups characterized as violations of freedom of religion and speech. Following international pressure from the United Nations and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the Qatar Court of Appeal acquitted Rowhani in September 2025.
International Legal Standards
The targeting of Baha’i institutions has drawn criticism from United Nations experts, who in May 2026 called on the Qatari government to reverse the deportation orders. The UN has expressed concern that the systematic removal of community leaders could lead to the total erasure of the Baha’i faith from Qatar.
Human Rights Watch has noted that returning individuals of Iranian nationality to Iran, where the Baha’i faith faces state-sanctioned persecution, would violate the international legal principle of nonrefoulement. This principle prohibits nations from transferring individuals to jurisdictions where they are at risk of serious harm. While the Qatari Constitution guarantees freedom of worship under Article 50, the government continues to enforce these deportation orders, with the affected individuals currently awaiting their mandated departure dates in June.
