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Australia says women on 10 flights subjected to Qatar body search

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 28, 2020, supplies to tackle the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic donated by the Qatar Fund for Development are loaded onto a Qatar Airways flight to Kigali in Rwanda at Doha's Hamad International Airport. - Revelations that passengers flying through Doha were forced to endure vaginal inspections have upended Qatar's efforts to boost its reputation before the Gulf state hosts World Cup 2022, experts say. Officers marched women off a Sydney-bound Qatar Airways flight earlier this month and forced them to undergo intimate examinations after a newborn baby was found abandoned in an airport bathroom. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR / AFP)

Female passengers on 10 planes flying out of Qatar’s capital Doha were obliged to undergo invasive physical examinations after a newborn was discovered abandoned in an airport toilet, Australia’s foreign minister announced on Wednesday, greatly expanding the number of women thought affected.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne told a hearing in Australia’s Senate that women on “10 aircraft in total” had been subject to the searches, which she has described as “grossly disturbing” and “offensive”.

“We became aware of that yesterday through advice from our post in Doha,” she said.

It was revealed on Sunday that women were removed from a Sydney-bound Qatar Airways flight in Doha on October 2 and forced to undergo invasive inspections after a newborn baby was found abandoned in an airport toilet.

The women said they were taken from the plane and subjected to strip searches in an ambulance parked on the tarmac.