DOHA: Qatar has confirmed it is holding two British researchers who had been probing the labor conditions of migrants building facilities for the 2022 World Cup, saying they “violated” the emirate’s laws.

Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev, who work for the Norway-based Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), were arrested in Doha on August 31.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement the pair were “being interrogated for having violated provisions of the law” in Qatar, but it did not elaborate.

“All of the actions that have been taken against the two Britons are consistent with principles of human rights enshrined in the constitution,” said the statement, released by the official QNA news agency late Saturday.

It said a representative of the British embassy in Doha had visited the two.

On its website, GNRD said that a British authority representative had transferred a message from Upadhyaya to his family saying: “I am well, I have been well looked after and I will be home soon.”

“We have been arrested due to problems with our paperwork,” he was quoted as saying.