By Tim Chester From Mashable

FIFA are to launch an investigation after a group of BBC journalists were arrested and detained for several days in Qatar earlier in May, while reporting on construction workers building stadiums ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Middle East correspondent Mark Lobel, a cameraman, translator and driver were part of a press delegation examining accommodation for the workers in the state’s capital, Doha, having been invited by the prime minister’s office.

However, they were arrested by security services, interrogated and jailed for two days before being released without charge. The Qatari government have since accused them of trespassing.

The group were “on a quiet stretch of road in Doha, on our way to film a group of workers from Nepal,” Lobel said. “Suddenly, eight white cars surrounded our vehicle and directed us on to a side road at speed. A dozen security officers frisked us in the street, shouting at us when we tried to talk.”

The group were not accused of anything directly at the time, he insists, but were told that their detention was a matter of national security. One of the interrogators then revealed they’d been trailing the team for two days since they arrived.

“This is not Disneyland,” one of them reportedly said. “You can’t stick your camera anywhere.”

Qatar’s Government Communications Office have since released a statement accusing the BBC reporters of trespassing on private property.

“The Government Communications Office invited a dozen reporters to see – first-hand – some sub-standard labour accommodation as well as some of the newer labour villages. We gave the reporters free rein to interview whomever they chose and to roam unaccompanied in the labour villages,” they said.

“Perhaps anticipating that the Government would not provide this sort of access, the BBC crew decided to do their own site visits and interviews in the days leading up to the planned tour. In doing so, they trespassed on private property, which is against the law in Qatar just as it is in most countries. Security forces were called and the BBC crew was detained.”

The BBC, in response, said that they “deplore the fact that they were detained in the first place.”

“Their presence in Qatar was no secret and they were engaged in a perfectly proper piece of journalism. The Qatari authorities have made a series of conflicting allegations to justify the detention, all of which the team rejects,” they added.

Lobel has since said that an apology or the return of his phone “would be nice.”

The reporters said they were invited to re-join the press tour as if nothing had happened, although their kit was impounded and they weren’t allowed to leave the country. They condemned Qatar’s attitude as a “Jekyll-and-Hyde approach to journalism.” Human Rights Watch’s Nicholas McGeehan, meanwhile, referred to the arrests as “jaw-droppingly awful PR.”

Conditions for migrant workers building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup have improved since reporters described a system tantamount to modern day slavery, with better accommodation and pay implemented following international scrutiny.

However, the BBC journalists who were arrested this month say that workers are still vulnerable to exploitation, and met one Nepalese man who said he was tied into a contract paying just over half of what he was promised.

IMAGES:
A group of BBC journalists were arrested during a press trip in Doha, Qatar, which aimed to show how the government is improving conditions for labourers building the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. IMAGE: MAYA ALLERUZZO/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The BBC team were part of a group of journalists invited to visit accommodation for workers building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. This kitchen is part of a private camp housing foreign workers in Doha. IMAGE: MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Foreign workers walk between safety barricades at the site of the pitch of the Al-Wakra Stadium that is under construction for the 2022 World Cup, in Doha, Qatar.
IMAGE: AP PHOTO/MAYA ALLERUZZO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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