Federal Court finds strip-searched women can’t sue Qatar Airways

The Federal Court has determined three women who launched legal action against Qatar Airways after they were invasively searched cannot sue because of the rules that govern international air travel.

On Wednesday Federal Court Justice John Halley found Qatar Airways and Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority were immune from foreign prosecution.

The women sought damages against the airline and the Qatari government over an incident in 2020 when they were removed from a plane and strip-searched without their consent to determine if they had recently given birth, after a baby was found in a bathroom at Hamad International Airport.

“Were [the relevant] applicants able to bring a claim against Qatar Airways under the Montreal Convention? I’ve concluded that the answer to that question must be no,” Halley said on Wednesday.

The women, who are represented by Marque Lawyers, were granted leave to re-plead their claim against a third party – the Qatar government’s airport company, MATAR. This leave to re-plead is limited to claims pertaining to the alleged conduct of the airport employees, including nurses who carried out the procedures and those contracted by the airport to provide security services.

The strip-search incident resurfaced outside the courts last year when Transport Minister Catherine King moved to reject Qatar Airways’ application to double its flights to Australia. The women had written to the minister asking that Qatar’s application be refused, and King responded to say the government was no longer considering the application.

The decision to reject Qatar Airways caused outcry from most the aviation industry due to the economic consequences, and ultimately led to a parliamentary inquiry late last year that focused on the relationship between the government and Australia’s biggest airline, Qantas, a rival of Qatar and its partner Virgin Australia.

Qatar Airways executive Matt Raos fronted the inquiry in September last year and said the strip-search incident was “very extreme” and would never be repeated.

“Let me provide assurance we have had nothing like that very extreme incident previously in our history, and we’re completely committed to ensuring nothing like this ever happens again,” Raos said.

Transport Minister Catherine King eventually conceded the strip-search had been a factor in the Qatar flights decision.

One of the women who was strip-searched branded the inquiry into the bilateral air rights decision a wasted chance to interrogate the country’s human rights record, and accused it of treating the experience of her group as a footnote.

King originally said the strip-search played no role in the decision to reject the extra flights into Australia but later conceded it was a factor.

Representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Senate inquiry they felt the strip search had been adequately handled by the Qatari government, which moved to sanction the police officer responsible.

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