Qatar: Three Stark Security guards remain in detention months after protests over unpaid wages, redundancies & evictions
"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 Allah 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 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.
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?Jason Nemerovski, Researcher at NGO Equidem
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