Team reporting on migrant workers held in Qatar: BBC

A reporting crew spent two nights in a Qatari prison after being arrested while trying to meet migrant workers in the nation that will host the 2022 World Cup, the British broadcaster said on Monday.

BBC journalist Mark Lobel was detained with three colleagues ahead of a government-organized public relations tour of official accommodation for low-paid workers. The Qatari government, which invited the BBC and other media outlets including The Associated Press on the trip, said Lobel and his colleagues were arrested because they were trespassing on private property.

Lobel reported that he, a <g data-gr-id="19">camera man</g>, translator and driver were interrogated without being “accused of anything directly.” 

“An hour into my grilling, one of the interrogators brought out a paper folder of photographs which proved they had been trailing me in cars and on foot for two days since the moment I’d arrived,” Lobel wrote Monday in a BBC website article which didn’t disclose the date of his arrest.

Lobel said one of the people interrogating him said: “This is not Disneyland. You can’t stick your camera anywhere.” 

Lobel said he was given a “disgusting soiled mattress” to sleep on in prison, went without food on the first day and was denied any phone calls.

Although Lobel was released without charge and able to conduct <g data-gr-id="22">to </g>an interview with Qatar’s labor minister, he said the BBC equipment has yet to be returned. A German TV film crew was arrested in Doha in March as media outlets continue to investigate conditions for the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers in the nation which is rapidly expanding to provide the infrastructure required for the World Cup.