BANGKOK, Jan 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A Saudi woman being held at Bangkok
airport on Monday appealed for asylum and for other passengers to help
protest her looming deportation, in desperate tweets from the hotel room
where she barricaded herself.
The incident comes against the backdrop of intense scrutiny of Saudi
Arabia over its investigation and handling of the shocking murder of
journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the
kingdom’s rights record.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun told AFP she ran away from her family while
travelling in Kuwait because they subjected her to physical and psychological
abuse.
She said she had planned to travel to Australia and seek asylum there, and
feared she would be killed if she was repatriated by Thai immigration
officials who stopped her during transit on Sunday.
The 18-year-old said she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when
she arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport and her travel document was forcibly
taken from her, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch.
She tweeted that she was due to be deported on a Kuwait Airways flight to
Kuwait due to depart at 11.15am (0415 GMT).
“I ask the the government of Thailand… to stop my deportation to
Kuwait,” she said on Twitter. “I ask the police in Thailand to start my
asylum process.”
Shortly before the scheduled departure, Qunun posted a plea for people
within “the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me”.
“Please I need u all,” she wrote. “I’m shouting out for help of humanity.”
In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Qunun posted video of her
barricading her hotel room door with furniture.
If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is “sure 100
percent” her family will kill her, she told AFP.
A senior Thai immigration official said Sunday that Qunun was denied entry
because she lacked “further documents such as return ticket or money” and
Thailand had contacted the “Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate”.
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said Qunun “faces grave harm if she
is forced back to Saudi Arabia” and Thailand should allow her to see the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and apply for asylum.
“Given Saudi Arabia’s long track record of looking the other way in so-
called honour violence incidents, her worry that she could be killed if
returned cannot be ignored,” he said.
The UNHCR said that according to the principle of non-refoulement, asylum
seekers cannot be returned to their country of origin if their life is under
threat.
“The UN Refugee Agency has been following developments closely and has
been trying to seek access from the Thai authorities to meet with Rahaf
Mohammed Alqunun, to assess her need for international protection,” it said
in a statement.
The ultra-conservative kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some
of the world’s toughest restrictions on women.
That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary
authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives.
In addition to facing punishment for “moral” crimes, women can also become
the target of “honour killings” at the hands of their families, activists
say.
Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d’affaires at the Saudi embassy in Bangkok,
acknowledged in an interview with Saudi-owned channel Rotana Khalijial that
the woman’s father had contacted the diplomatic mission for “help” to bring
her back.
But he denied that her passport had been seized and that embassy officials
were present inside the airport.
Saudi Arabia has come under fierce criticism following the murder of
dissident journalist Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate on
October 2 — a case that stunned the world.
Another Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, was stopped in transit in the
Philippines in April 2017 when she attempted to flee her family.