A newborn baby was found abandoned inside the waste bin of a plane’s lavatory shortly after landing in Mauritius. The baby is said to be healthy and well and is now in the care of social workers.
The baby boy was found by customs officers who were doing a random sweep of the Air Mauritius operated Airbus A330neo shortly after it had landed in Port Louis and after passengers had disembarked.
According to local media, the mother was quickly identified and placed under arrest. She allegedly initially denied the baby was hers but police forced her to undergo a medical exam that apparently proved she had just given birth.
Both the baby and mother were rushed to a local hospital for treatment.
The mother had arrived in Mauritius on a flight from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Air Mauritius flight MK289 departed at around 5 pm on January 1, 2022, and landed in Port Louis around an hour and a half later.
The mother is Malagasy and was travelling to Mauritius on a work visa.
The incident is reminiscent of a child abandonment case at Doha International Airport in October 2020 when a newborn child was dumped in a trash can in an airport lavatory. In that case, officials subjected at least 13 Australian women to a “grossly offensive” strip search in an attempt to identify the mother.
Some of the women who were dragged off a Qatar Airways plane for the vaginal examinations are pursuing legal action against the state of Qatar and its national airline.