An Australian woman strip-searched at Doha airport has branded a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s decision to reject more Qatar Airways flights as a wasted chance to interrogate the country’s human rights record, and accused it of treating the experience of her group as a footnote.
The woman, who goes by the pseudonym Anna, said the Coalition-led committee was more interested in scoring political points, as a government senator raised fresh allegations over the recent deportation from the Middle Eastern country of two gay Qatar Airways flight crew.
Anna (not her real name) says the Senate inquiry treated her experience in Doha as a footnote.Credit: 60 Minutes
“It makes me feel very, very sad, given it’s been three years [since the incident],” said Anna, who, along with the other women, has had her name suppressed in Federal Court proceedings. “Being referenced just literally as a footnote is beyond sad and upsetting.”
She is among five women seeking damages against the airline and the Qatari government after they were removed from a plane by armed guards following the discovery of a baby in a bathroom at Hamad International Airport and strip-searched without their consent to determine if they had recently given birth.
The Senate inquiry was launched last month in response to Transport Minister Catherine King’s rejection of Qatar Airways’ application for more Australian flights, which King has revealed was made partly in the context of the 2020 incident involving the women.
The Senate inquiry’s findings were mostly devoted to overhauling Qantas’ market dominance to enhance aviation competition, which the committee chair – opposition transport spokesperson Bridget McKenzie – used to attack the government’s relationship with the national carrier.
Anna said she believed the inquiry had been “more concerned with getting cheaper flights out of Australia, rather than considering the safety of flying through Doha airport”.
“The whole thing is turning into a Qantas saga, rather than considering our point of view,” she said.
McKenzie said the report had provided a balanced reflection of the extensive evidence raised during the inquiry, adding: “The committee expressed its deep concern at the appalling and unacceptable incident that occurred at Hamad International Airport in October 2020.”
She said Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials had informed the committee that the Qatari government had prosecuted those responsible, had apologised and repeatedly assured such an incident would not happen again, while Qatar Airways executives at the inquiry said the Australian government hadn’t raised it as a relevant concern.
Anna said the women agreed with the dissenting report from government senators Tony Sheldon and Linda White, who defended King’s decision as being in the national interest, particularly in light of the women’s 2020 experience.
Sheldon said Coalition senators should take heed of the experience of two Qatar Airways cabin crew, whose deportation in June was facilitated by the airline after police allegedly questioned them about their sexuality. Homosexual relations are illegal in Qatar.
Gilbert Ignatius and his flight crew colleague, who has asked not to be named, said they felt violated and traumatised after being stopped and interrogated by police for wearing tinted moisturiser during a night out in Doha in May, before they were grounded by the airline and deported three weeks later.
Former Qatar Airways flight attendant Gilbert Ignatius was deported from Doha, along with his colleague, in June.Credit: Arsineh Houspian
“These latest allegations against Qatar Airways need a full, earnest response from the airline, and the Liberals and Nationals. If this was to occur here in Australia, or many other countries in the world, there’d be an almighty outcry for justice,” Sheldon said.
Ignatius, an Indonesian man who has studied in Australia and now works for Jetstar, described the ordeal as “a horrific experience”.
“I cannot imagine that a birthday dinner with my friends resulted in me having a mugshot picture taken in a detention centre,” he said.
According to a source with knowledge of the incident but not authorised to speak on the record, Qatar’s Ministry of the Interior ordered the deportation of the men without reason, and the airline was obliged to comply without asking why.
A spokesperson for Qatar Airways said the carrier was “required to facilitate travel arrangements for individuals who no longer hold residency rights to remain in a particular country”.
In 2015, the airline reacted to public pressure by relaxing a policy banning them from falling pregnant within their first five years at the carrier, changing it to allow them to apply for ground crew positions.
Sheldon accused the airline of making “glacial advances” in labour standards since 2015, and said Qatar Airways needed to do a lot more to win the trust of the travelling public “who value basic human rights”.
A second Senate inquiry has been slated to enable former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, and potentially King, to be called.
Damian Sturzaker, partner of Marque Lawyers, which is representing the victims of the 2020 incident, said Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker should appear, and the committee should apply a greater focus on human rights issues.
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