⁍ Australian women subjected to invasive search at Doha airport after discovery of abandoned newborn baby.

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⁍ Women from Qatar Airways flight, including 13 Australians, were forced to undergo a medical examination in an ambulance on the tarmac.

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⁍ The newborn was found in a bathroom at the Hamad International Airport.

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⁍ Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said there were significant concerns over consent for the medical examination.

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– Thirteen Australian women say they were invasiveally searched on the tarmac at a Qatar airport after giving birth to a baby girl. The women were on a Qatar Airways flight from Sydney to Doha when they found the baby in a bathroom at the Hamad International Airport, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. Airport officials “expressed concern to officials about the health and welfare of a mother who had just given birth and requested she be located prior to departing (the airport),” the airport said in a statement. The women were taken to an ambulance, where they underwent a medical examination “beyond circumstances in which the women could give free and informed consent,” the Australian government said in a statement, per Reuters. The women were later allowed to return to Australia. “This is a grossly disturbing, offensive, concerning set of events,” Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said Monday. “It is not something I have ever heard of occurring in my life, in any context. We have made our views very clear to the Qatari authorities.”