Two Britons researching migrant worker issues in Qatar, the Gulf nation that is due to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, have gone missing after one of them reported being harassed by police, according to the Norwegian human rights group that employs them.
Global Network for Rights and Development said on Thursday that researcher Krishna Upadhyaya, 52, and photographer Ghimire Gundev, 36, were supposed to leave Qatar via Doha on Sunday. Their whereabouts are not known.
Fahad Atalla, project manager for the group in Norway, said he believes Qatari security services were behind the disappearance, but he could not give evidence to support the assertion.
“We’re 99 percent sure they’ve been taken by the Qatari government authorities,” he said. “We spoke to human rights organizations and government authorities, but no one knows what has happened to them.”
According to the rights group, Upadhyaya contacted a friend in Norway on Saturday last week saying that Qatari police were following and harassing both men. He was working on a report on overworked migrant workers, according to a statement issued by his family.
The London-based rights group Amnesty International said the two had been working in Qatar since Aug. 27 for the Norway-based organization.
It called on Qatari authorities to immediately reveal their whereabouts “and dispel the growing fears that they are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.”
Amnesty said that a day after contacting his friend over concerns of being followed, Upadhyaya checked out of his hotel, but remained in the reception area because of the presence of Qatari police. He was reported to have checked in for his flight, but airline KLM says he never boarded the aircraft.
The Stavanger, Norway-based group said it is prepared to take legal action to secure the men’s release.
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