The workers had been seeking justice for a year against their employer who had denied them regular payments. According to one Nepali worker, the police came into the labor camp where the workers are housed at midnight to arrest them: "The police arrested all our friends who were sleeping at the camp … Those who were not in the camp escaped the arrest." Prior to their arrest, the workers had issued lawsuits against their employer Metal Farming Centre including at the High Court and Supreme Court of Qatar because they had not been paid in 15 months.