Its not done yet, a group of seven Australia-based women are set to sue Qatar's aviation bodies, that includes the Civil Aviation Authority for being forced to undergo invasive gynaecological examinations at Doha's international airport (HIA) after an abandoned newborn was found in a trash can on October 2, 2020.
Women in their early 30s and late 50s are likely to file a proceeding in the New South Wales Supreme Court within a few weeks, as legal advice has been forwarded to the Qatar government, the Qatar Civil Aviation Bureau, and state-owned airlines and the airport, that Australian courts have jurisdiction over the case.
Earlier, Qatar had issued a formal apology and took legal action against airport officials involved in the search. At least one official has been fined and handed a six-month sentence for enforcing the search.
According to a statement from prosecutors that time ,
"Extensive investigations revealed that some employees of the Airport Security Department acted unilaterally by summoning female medical staff to conduct external examination to some female passengers, thinking that what they had done was within the law."
At the time, Qatar's Prime Minister Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani tweeted an apology saying:
"We regret the unacceptable treatment of the female passengers... What took place does not reflect Qatar's laws or values."
Some sources say , the abandoned baby, whose parents' identity has not been disclosed remains at Qatar’s Orphans Care Center [Dreama], at the request of the Qatari authorities.
The women were subjected to the examinations at Hamad International Airport on October 2, 2020, after Qatar Airways Flight 908 to Sydney was delayed. The seven were among 13 women on the flight who were "invasively examined" on the tarmac, said their lawyer Damian Sturzaker, from Sydney-based Marque Lawyers.
The airline has denied liability while the Qatar government said it was considering the women’s claim, Sturzaker added.
One of the passenger Kim Mills says, she was among those taken off the flight and led into a dark car park, where three ambulances were waiting to perform medical examinations.
However, officials did not subject her to the examination due, she suspected, to her being in her 60s. Even so, she said, the experience was horrifying.
"My legs were just wobbling. I was terrified they were going to take me away somewhere. Why didn't they explain to us what was going on?" she said, adding that airplane staff later told her they didn't know what was happening.
"It was absolutely terrible. I can't imagine what it was like for those poor young girls."
Sturzaker said he was not aware of passengers on other flights taking legal action over the episode and at the moment, the women have not specified the amount of compensation that they are seeking.
The Qatar government, the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, as well as the state-owned airline and airport, have been forwarded legal advice that Australian courts had jurisdiction to hear the case and that the claimants were likely to win, Sturzaker said.
Hamad International Airport and the Qatar government are quiet but they point to their previous statements on the incident in which it offered its "sincerest apology" and said that "those responsible for these violations and illegal actions" had been referred to prosecutors.
