World Cup migrant workers imprisoned for months in Qatar

Three migrant workers at the World Cup finals in Qatar have been in prison in the Gulf state since protests in January over unpaid wages, redundancies and evictions saw authorities arrest and deport many of those involved.

Telegraph Sport revealed in January that workers employed as security guards at Fifa's main media centre during the World Cup, as well as two other key sites, had protested the early termination of their six-month contracts – which had left them without a salary or a place to live.

It is understood that since that day, three men are still in custody. They have been named as Pakistan nationals Shakir Ullah and Zafar Iqbal and Indian national Tanveer Hussain. The Qatar government has not responded to requests to comment. Fifa referred Telegraph Sport to a previous statement it had made on the Qatari contractor at the centre of the allegations.

The nature of the Qatari court system means that it is difficult to verify what the trio have been charged with or whether they have been convicted. The men are understood to have been contracted to Stark Security Services and Festival Global Management, sister companies which employed foreign workers as security guards.

The trio are understood to have been told that protests were illegal in the Doha downtown area of West Bay, where around 400 workers travelled on buses from their main accommodation centre in Barwa Al Baraha, outside the city centre.

Their intention had been simply to make their case at the head office of Festival Global and ask for full payment of the salaries owed to them. Their buses were stopped en route. The workers had originally tried collectively to instruct legal representation in Qatar. Many were then deported, with police accompanying them to their accommodation to collect belongings.

The reporting by Telegraph Sport in January prompted an investigation into the treatment of workers by Stark Security and Festival Global Management by the human and labour rights organisation, Equidem. The name of Allah was independently disclosed to Telegraph Sport, from sources outside Qatar. Investigators at Equidem discovered that Iqbal and Hussain were also detained.

The Equidem researcher Jason Nemerovski told Telegraph Sport that the 2022 World Cup finals had "come at the expense of thousands of workers who were exploited and are still owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages". He said: "One case in particular, Stark Security, showed us that when those workers stood up for their rights, they were punished with detention and deportation.

"We've spoken to 41 former Stark Security workers who have been deported and we believe that three former employees, almost four months from when they were initially detained, have not been released.

"Their names are Shakir Allah, Zafar Iqbal, and Tanveer Hussain. We don't have any information as to their whereabouts, and none of the men we have interviewed have had any contact with them since they were initially detained in January. We want to know from the Qatari authorities: where are they? And why are they still being detained?"

Most labourers have left Qatar nursing grievances about unpaid salaries

The labour dispute began during the World Cup finals when workers at the Fifa media centre in the Qatar National Convention Centre were asked to sign new contracts that would have kept them in the Gulf state for two years. It prompted a strike on December 5 when around 125 guards refused to work that day. After the World Cup finals were over, hundreds of workers were given "demobilisation" dates of December 19, 20 or 22.

At the height of the dispute in January around 1,000 men from south-east Asia, Africa and the Middle East occupied their accommodation. Most have since left Qatar nursing grievances about unpaid salaries. The standard salary for a guard was around 2,700 Qatari riyals a month – the equivalent of £615. Workers from Stark Security were also deployed at the Doha Exhibition Centre and Stadium 974, one of the seven new stadiums built for the tournament.

Fifa said in April that it was aware of the allegations against Stark Security. In a statement the world governing body for football said: "We understand that [Stark Security] has been a host country contractor during the Fifa World Cup and that some of the issues raised in the report are currently being investigated by competent authorities in Qatar.

"Fifa is following up closely on such investigations in contact with the ILO [International Labour Organisation] and other counterparts in Qatar and seeks to facilitate discussions at the host country level, to explore available options for remedy."