[ad_1]
Qatar “regrets” the forced gynecological examinations several Australians underwent at Doha airport, the small Arabian Peninsula state said Wednesday. The incident, which began with the discovery of a premature baby abandoned in an airplane toilet, caused anger in Australia, which intensifies the pressure on this affluent Gulf country, where investigations are underway, AFP reports, according to Agerpres.
A newborn was found abandoned in a Doha airport restroom on October 2, “covered with a plastic bag” and hiding under the trash in a garbage can, in what appeared to be “a criminal attempt”, according to local authorities.
Airport officials then forced several women aboard a plane bound for the Australian city of Sydney to disembark and undergo a gynecological examination to see if they had recently given birth.
Forced gynecological visits at the airport
According to Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, women on ten planes were investigated without specifying their destination, but reported a “very disturbing” and “offensive” incident that affected 13 women with Australian citizenship.
Other Australian officials said Canberra authorities were in talks with other states to express concern about the abuses, but declined to mention the countries, citing respecting victims’ right to privacy. According to France Presse, a French woman is among the victims.
For his part, Qatari Prime Minister Khaled ben Khalifa Al-Thani promised that the results of an ongoing “comprehensive and transparent” investigation would be “communicated to our international partners”. The Doha government said in a statement that “an immediate search of the parents was initiated that day, including on board the plane near which the newborn was found, and the decision to resort to forced gynecological examinations was justified. from the desire to “prevent the escape of the perpetrators of this horrible crime”.
According to local authorities, the child survived and receives medical treatment in Doha.
In Qatar, women who have sex or give birth to a child out of wedlock risk imprisonment and those with foreign citizenship can be expelled from the country.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
