Qatar has repeatedly committed to ensuring the future “safety and security” of passengers.
Sydney, Australia:
The Australian Foreign Minister praised the measures taken by Qatar to prosecute those responsible for subjecting female travelers to gynecological searches at the main airport in the Gulf state last month.
Women on 10 flights from Doha, including at least 13 Australians, were forced to take exams as authorities searched for the mother of an abandoned newborn in an airport toilet on October 2.
Facing international condemnation from a furious Australia, Qatar said on Friday that the perpetrators of the incident had been fired for prosecution.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she spoke with her Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday, who “offered his sincere apologies” and “gave firm assurance that the Qatar fully recognizes the seriousness of these events and will ensure that they never repeat ”.
“We warmly welcome the recognition by the Qatari government of the recent events at Hamad airport. We welcome the investigative process they have undertaken,” she told reporters on Saturday.
Payne said Australia had “had a very constructive engagement with Qatar” on the matter and hoped the legal process was “transparent, appropriate and proportionate”.
The incident was not revealed until after affected Australian passengers spoke out. It has since emerged that British, New Zealand and French citizens have also been subjected to invasive searches.
Qatar said the abandoned baby girl – who survived – was wrapped in plastic and left to die in a bathroom trash can, prompting what sources said was a lockdown at Hamad International Airport .
The women were then taken from the plane to the ambulances on the tarmac where they were subjected to physical exams to see if they had recently given birth.
Faced with potentially devastating commercial and reputational damage, Qatar has repeatedly pledged to ensure the future “safety and security” of passengers.
Sex and childbirth outside of marriage are punishable by jail time in the ultra-conservative Muslim country, which has struggled to reassure critics that its promises on women’s rights, labor relations and democracy are credible before hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
