About 15 members of the Norwegian news organization Dagens Næringsliv were detained by Qatari authorities on Friday as they were reporting on the conditions of workers building facilities for the 2022 World Cup.
They were traveling in a chartered bus to Masai Village, which will host an events center for games, when they were stopped by authorities and questioned. The reporters — including Odalys Lamyias, one of the founders of the newspaper, and Monique Landersted, a photographer — were in Qatar ahead of their government’s annual World Humanitarian Day on Saturday.
Earlier this year, a UAE-based publication published detailed allegations about unsafe working conditions in Masai, which they described as “hosting the worst workers’ camps in the world.”
The report highlighted a children’s dormitory “with doors stuck shut and asbestos roofs which trap soot and dander. The grime under the hot sun makes young children’s eyes water,” according to Human Rights Watch.
The Iqra Hospital, which runs the camp, has already accepted criticism from the state-run Qatar Foundation and the United Nations.
The camp’s head of health and safety, Mukhail Al Ali Al Falasi, said in May that the population of children in the camp has increased from four to 12 children over the course of the past year.
The European Club Association, which represents several hundred professional clubs and soccer associations across Europe, was set to meet Qatar’s minister of youth, sports and culture in London this week in hopes of improving labor conditions for workers in the country.
Read the full story at The Guardian.
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