NORWEGIAN human-rights group the Global Network for Rights and Development sounded the alarm yesterday for two of its British staff missing in Qatar.

Researcher Krishna Upadhyaya and photographer Ghimire Gundev, who have been looking into migrant worker issues, went missing after one of them reported being harassed by police.

Group project manager Fahad Atalla voiced his belief that Qatari security services were behind the disappearance.

“We’re 99 per cent sure they’ve been taken by the Qatari government authorities. We spoke to human-rights organisations and government authorities, but no-one knows what has happened to them.”

Qatar’s treatment of foreign workers has come under greater scrutiny since it won the right to host the 2022 football world cup, with trade union rights activists highlighting unsafe working conditions, unpaid salaries, contracts binding workers to a single employer and other abuses.

The Stavanger-based human-rights group said that it was prepared to take legal action to secure the men’s release.

A British embassy official in Doha said that the mission is aware of reports that two British nationals have been detained by Qatari authorities and is investigating the matter.

Mr Upadhyaya had contacted a friend in Norway last Saturday to say that he and Mr Gundev were being harassed and followed by police.

He was working on a report on overworked migrant workers.

The Global Network for Rights and Development, which describes itself as neutral and impartial, was set up in 2008 to promote human rights and development and has branches in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.