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Canada and Australia in talks with UN to accept Saudi asylum seeker, Thais say Saudi woman fleeing family leaves Thailand for Canada
(about 9 hours later)
Several countries including Canada and Australia are in talks with the UN refugee agency to accept the Saudi asylum seeker Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun who fled alleged abuse by her family, police in Thailand have said. A Saudi woman who fled to Thailand saying she feared her family would kill her has been granted asylum in Canada and is on her way to the country, Thai officials have said.
The immigration police chief said on Friday that the UN was accelerating Qunun’s case, but he gave no indication of when the process would be completed. Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, boarded a Korean Air flight from Bangkok to Seoul on Friday night, they added. She is due to board a connecting flight to Canada from Incheon airport in Seoul.
Qunun, 18, was stopped at a Bangkok airport on Saturday and said her passport was seized. She barricaded herself in an airport hotel room and wrote about her situation on social media, prompting a global campaign to prevent her being returned to Saudi Arabia. Canadian authorities said they could not confirm Qunun had been granted asylum in the country. “We have nothing new to add on this right now,” said a spokesman for the Canadian foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland.
The UN high commissioner for refugees granted Qunun refugee status on Wednesday. Qunun arrived in Bangkok on Saturday and was initially denied entry, but after a tense 48-hour standoff at Bangkok airport, some of it spent barricaded in a transit lounge hotel room, she was allowed to enter the country and has been processed as a refugee by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
She has accused her family of abuse and refused to meet her father and brother, who arrived in Bangkok to try to take her back to Saudi Arabia.
Her case has brought global attention to Saudi Arabia’s strict social rules, including a requirement that women have the permission of a male “guardian” to travel, which rights groups say can trap women and girls as prisoners of abusive families.
Qunun’s plight has emerged at a time when Riyadh is facing intense scrutiny from western allies over the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the humanitarian consequences of its war in Yemen.
Australia had said on Wednesday it was considering taking in Qunun.
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia
ThailandThailand
CanadaCanada
Middle East and North AfricaMiddle East and North Africa
Asia PacificAsia Pacific
RefugeesRefugees
AmericasAmericas
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