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GEORGIA-SAUDI-RIGHTS-WOMEN-REFUGEE
Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia say granted ‘new home’
TBILISI, May 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Two Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia
saying they feared being killed if they returned home posted on social media
Tuesday that they have now obtained Georgian passports and are moving to a
third country.
The women, who identified themselves as 28-year-old Maha Alsubaie and
25-year-old Wafa Alsubaie, wrote on Twitter account @GeorgiaSisters2, “we are
on our way to start a new life in a new country”.
The sisters, who appealed for help via social media last month, are the
latest to flee the Islamic kingdom where they say they feared for their
lives.
“Finally we are going to another country, We have a new home, we have to
start our new life,” said Wafa in a video that shows the pair at Tbilisi
airport.
They wave Georgian passports and smile broadly in the video, while
saying on Twitter that they would not give details of where they are moving
to “for a little while”.
The Georgian interior ministry told AFP they could not comment on
whether the women had left the country because information about asylum
seekers is confidential.
The ministry however confirmed the women were safe as did a Georgian
rights NGO that has worked with the women, Article 42 of the Constitution.
Last month, the women pleaded for international protection saying they
were “trapped in Georgia” after Saudi authorities cancelled their passports.
“If we go back to Saudi we will be killed,” they said.
Georgian authorities gave them shelter but the women said they did not
feel safe to remain in the country because their father and brothers were
searching for them there.
More than 40,000 people signed a Change.org petition by the women asking
for UN help to gain asylum in a “safe third country”.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most restrictive countries for women.
In a similar case in March, another two Saudi sisters aged 20 and 18 who
were marooned in Hong Kong reached a third country after securing
humanitarian visas as they sought sanctuary from an abusive family.
In early 2019, 18-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun drew global
attention with her dramatic escape from an allegedly abusive family, gaining
refugee status in Canada.
Many Saudi women who flee overseas have spoken to media and rights
groups of persuasive and coercive tactics deployed by officials and family
members to pursue those who escape.
BSS/AFP/RY/1905 hrs