Qatar airways escapes Australian lawsuit regarding women’s invasive examinations

• Five Australian women sued Qatar Airways for strip-searching and invasive examinations at Doha airport.
• An Australian court ruled that Qatar Airways could not face prosecution under global travel laws.
• The women claimed “unlawful physical contact” and false imprisonment led to mental health issues.

Qatar Airways has successfully defended against a lawsuit brought by five Australian women who were strip-searched and subjected to invasive examinations at Doha airport. Authorities ordered them and other women off a flight to check whether they had recently given birth, following the discovery of an abandoned baby in an airport bin in 2020. The incident triggered public outrage and drew condemnation from several nations.

An Australian court ruled that the state-owned airline could not face prosecution under the laws governing global travel. In 2021, the five women filed a claim in the Federal Court of Australia, seeking damages for alleged “unlawful physical contact” and false imprisonment, which they claimed had led to mental health issues such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Other passengers, including those from the UK and New Zealand, were not included in the lawsuit.

But on Wednesday, Justice John Halley ruled that Qatar Airways could not be held accountable under a multilateral treaty known as the Montreal Convention. This treaty is utilized to establish airline liability in cases of death or injury to passengers.

He also determined that the airline’s staff could not have influenced the actions of Qatari police who removed the women from the flight, nor the nurses who examined them in ambulances on the tarmac. The judgment described this proposition as “fanciful, trifling, implausible, improbable, [and] tenuous.”

Justice Halley also dismissed the women’s case against Qatar’s aviation regulator, asserting its immunity from foreign prosecution. However, he indicated that they could proceed with their claim against a subsidiary of Qatar Airways named Matar, which is contracted to operate Hamad International Airport.

They will have the opportunity to argue that Matar employees owed them a duty of care and allegedly failed to prevent the invasive searches. The women, who claim they did not consent to the examinations and were not provided with explanations for what was happening to them, previously told the news.

“I felt like I had been raped,” said British grandmother Mandy, who asked to withhold her surname.

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