Gay men hunted and gang-raped by Qatar Police amidst preparations for the World Cup

Qatar is hosting the World Cup in two weeks' time despite its Middle East country laws that condemn homosexuality at risk of imprisonment or even the death penalty. Gay men are going on the record with claims of being entrapped by the Qatar police and gang raped in hotel rooms.

British national morning newspaper I News reported an exclusive story of how a gay Filipino male named Ali was working in Qatar as an office assistant when he was lured to a hotel room by a man that messaged him on a gay dating app. The man claimed to be a Turkish worker and made a proposition to Ali to come over to his hotel room. When Ali arrived at the room, he was blindsided by six men identifying themselves as Qatari police. They proceeded to brutally attack Ali as the Turkish man watched merely watched.

"I really wanted to jump [out of] the window but I can't, it's too high and I'm already cornered inside the room. They catch me and threw me on the bed. They started to rape me," Ali said.

Ali painfully recalled how the policemen started assaulting him one after the other. Ali was accused of being a prostitute and witnessed another gay victim being lured into the same hotel room.

Ali was kept overnight and his visa was cancelled. He recalled, "I slept in the jail for one night and when I woke up, they took me to the deportation centre. There I waited for two days to receive my passport and ticket to go back to the Philippines. They cancelled all my papers."

Reports are surfacing of several other gay men who claim to have been hunted in the same way as Ali by Qatar's police force. As the safety of LGBT+ supporters and enthusiasts of the World Cup remains at risk, numerous groups are urging them not to travel.

A number of LGBT+ community groups including Three Lions Pride have released a statement, "A founding principle of our group is that we should be able to follow our team as our authentic selves wherever we play in the world without fear for our safety and with freedom from persecution. We cannot, in good faith, tell our members, LGBT+ people or allies that this is a World Cup for all. We have seen no details about how our trans+ members will be treated with respect through security checks. We have heard no specifics on guarantees that LGBT+ people (fans or residents) will not be arrested for their existence."