The seven Australian women suing the Qatari government for forcing them to undertake invasive searches at its airport are now also complaining to an international authority on business standards.
Marque Lawyers’ partner Damian Sturzaker said his clients hoped the move would force authorities to ensure no other passengers would be forced to endure such an ordeal.
In October 2020, 13 Australian women on board a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Sydney were asked to leave their aircraft before being escorted to ambulances for an genital checks, supposedly carried out as staff tried to find the mother of a baby abandoned at the airport.
Seven are now pursuing legal action against Qatar because they say they were left traumatised and received no personal apology or compensation.
They will now also be lodging a formal complaint with the Australian National Contact Point for the OECD, which aims to provide “conciliation services” to resolve complaints against multinational businesses.
“Even before they engaged our firm, this group of women wrote to the Qatari parties and received no response,” Sturzaker said.
“There was no apology, no reach out, nothing. Just a tweet from the (Qatar) Prime Minister who said ‘this is terrible’ and ‘we’ll investigate it thoroughly and publish the results of our investigation’.
Sturzaker told The Australian he was “staggered” by the lack of response, and added one of the women had the further worry of having to leave her six and eight-year-old sons alone on the aircraft.
Aside from the Australian passengers, a further five women from other countries, including the UK and France, were also asked to leave the plane bound for Sydney.
It was later confirmed that women from as many as 10 other flights were also subjected to the ordeal.
Early reports of the incident suggest the women involved were ”distraught” and “couldn’t believe what had…