Can't find it, can't find any extracts from it, including here
. Can you help?
Found it!
That was the good news....
Bad news, it is behind a paywall. I've copied about 1/12 of the article (below) so that should not breach copyright
But if you have a subscription then search for:
Marise Payne condemns Qatar airport strip search incident
A woman says she was “lucky” to escape a “terrifying” strip-search ordeal forced upon a dozen other Australian women in Qatar.
October 26, 2020 7:12pm
Australian Kim Mills was ultimately spared because of her age but said other younger Australian women were left distraught by the ordeal at Hamad International Airport on October 2.
“They told me to step forward, to go into the ambulance, and as I stepped forward another officer came round and stood in front of me and said: ‘No, no, you go, you go’,” she told Guardian Australia.
“I was the luckiest one on the whole flight because I have grey hair and I’m in my 60s. They probably looked at me and thought well, that’s impossible, it could not be her.”
Ms Mills tried to help women emerging from the ambulances who were “crying and distraught”.
“I said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s going on?’ And she told me that they’d found a baby in the bathroom at the airport and they were examining all the women,” she said.
Now doing some 1 + 1 should = 2.
- There was only one woman, as reported by the lady seeking to launch a class action, who was not required to be examined due to her age. Confirmed by Ms Mills herself.
- All women, including 5 foreign Nationals flying into Australia with our closed international borders, were made to leave that flight.
- In earlier articles it stated that the DFAT off-duty woman was not examined but did not identify her.
cough/um/e (with all its pitfalls) that the various earlier reports of the other lady's interview are accurate (given they're recorded they should be) then
Ms Mills should be the off-duty DFAT lady. Or I'm wrong.
New news that contradicts all the earlier articles based on "Ms Class Action's" interview: Ms Mills tried to help women emerging from the ambulances who were “crying and distraught”.
“I said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s going on?’ And she told me that they’d found a baby in the bathroom at the airport and they were examining all the women,” she said."
So, according to Ms Mills, someone involved in the process told at least one woman why they were to be examined. If the earlier report was accurate in one sense (where the lady said there were 6 other women from the plane in her ambulance & 6 in another) then that implies that at least six of the women were told in the ambulance.
Directly contradicts the 'nobody told the women why we were being examined' line potentially.
Now this in no way excuses the Qataris for what went on, but it does change the storyline somewhat.
As Ms Mills went into quite some detail about what she did then I also assumed all other possible actions such as identifying herself as a DFAT official & asking to speak with who is in charge or seeking Australian diplomatic assistance before any further actions taekn etc - did not happen (but could be wrong again).
Who knows the full 'factual account - we certainly don't.
