The Qatar World Cup has been going on for a week and a bit now and most of the reports coming out of the country seem to indicate that fans are having a really good time and the majority of them have seemingly forgotten about all the issues surrounding the host country – or simply never really cared about them in the first place.

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The same can’t be said of 21-year-old Rob Dawley though, who was determined to find the hidden Qatar when he attended the tournament. Rob decided to visit the secret city of Mesaieed after hearing a tip from a former citizen and ended up discovering a bunch of eerie abandoned tower blocks where migrant workers had been staying in the past.

Here’s what he had to say about it, along with a TikTok that has been viewed over 2 million times:

@dawleycb5 I found an abandoned apartment in Qatar👀 Ever wondered what it was like living in Qatar as a migrant worker☝️ #fyp #worldcup #qatar #doha #abandonedplaces ♬ original sound – Rob Dawley

I messaged my mate who’s dad used to live in Qatar and asked him to recommend somewhere he wouldn’t go – he gave me a list and Mesaieed was on there.

I got on the local metro in Qatar and met someone called Hassan at the bus stop, he told me he was a migrant doctor and living in a camp nearby so I followed him.

They didn’t let me in the camp, so I got a cab to the city centre of Mesaieed and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I’m a sucker for an eastern European tower block, and there were 25 to 30 of them completely abandoned, I just thought this is a bit of me.

But when I walked up there were no entry signs everywhere, I could have easily hopped the fence but I thought I’d better not – I am in Qatar.

Luckily, I saw a security car, so I walked over and got chatting to one of them in the car and he said ‘You know what mate, I’m going to give you a private tour – they’re demolishing them in a few months anyway.’

His name was Sadiq and he was an absolute top geezer.

Personally I was surprised by how decent it was and how well it was all put together.

The infrastructure was brilliant, there were two balconies in the flat and one of the rooms had an en-suite.

Of course, it depends how many people were staying in the flat.

If there were six or seven per room then it would be absolutely horrible, but if you renovated that flat and put it in London it would be worth millions.

I must say it was very eerie though, I don’t think the TikTok quite captures that.

That’s a great little TikTok isn’t it? I doubt this guy has been planted to try and prove to everyone that Qatar isn’t as bad as it seems either so I believe what he’s saying and it kinda looks like the migrant workers that built the stadium weren’t being treated too shabbily, unless 20 of them were expected to stay in that massive room or whatever.

The accommodation actually looked cool and reasonable and that’s a very different narrative to the one that the western media is spinning about the place. Interesting.

For more of the same, check out the World Cup beer nerd returning for the Qatar World Cup and actually going viral this time. Legend.