Nearly five dozen Nepali workers have been deported from Qatar for allegedly joining a protest demanding their backpay, multiple sources privy to the matter said.

Migrant rights groups said most of the demonstrating workers were Nepalis, and they were asking for their rightful salaries. A Nepali government official said the company which employed them closed two months ago, and they were sent home after they had been paid in full.

“Around 55 Nepali workers employed at the Al Bandary International Group were deported to Nepal on August 19,” Rameshwar Nepal, South Asia Director at Equidem Research, a United Kingdom-based human rights research organisation, told the Post.

According to Nepal, around 500 workers from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Egypt and the Philippines had protested outside the company's office on August 14 saying they had not been paid for five to seven months.