Call for help from 18-Year-old from Saudi Arabia

In Thailand has been stopped an 18-Year-old from Saudi Arabia at the airport. She flees to their own information in front of your family and want to go to Australia. Ambassadors, human rights activists and the UNHCR intervened.

A 18-Year-old from Saudi Arabia has been stopped on the run from her family at the airport in Bangkok. A Protest has barricaded Rahaf Mohammed Alkunun in your room at the Airport Hotel and sends a desperate call for help via social media.

This one from Human Rights Watch provided video still image shows Alkunun in a hotel room at the international airport in Bangkok.

International attention

the office of The UN High Commissioner for refugees announced that it was following the case and attempts by Thai authorities to get access to the young woman. They wanted to determine whether they need international protection.

the German Ambassador to Thailand, Georg Schmidt, intervened. On Twitter he made on the case closely:

Saudi Embassy involved?

According to its own information, the 18-Year-old escaped during a family trip to Kuwait from domestic violence and forced marriage. About Bangkok, you wanted to fly to Australia. At the airport, she was stopped by Thai authorities. Then your passport had been seized.

The Saudi chargé d'affaires in Bangkok, Abdullah al-Schuaibi, said his country had nothing to do with the case. "She was stopped by the airport authorities because they violated Thai laws," he was quoted on the Saudi news website Sabk. You've apparently had no return ticket, no hotel reservation, and not a tourist visa. The Saudi Embassy have no hand to stop anyone at the airport.

HRW calls for refugee status

The Human rights organization Human Rights Watch called on the authorities to let the 18-Year-old to Australia to travel or to grant it in Thailand refugee status. A spokesman for the immigration Department said, however, Alkunun have no return Ticket and no money. Therefore, they should to Kuwait. "The Saudi Embassy has told us that she ran away from home."

escape

On Twitter wrote Alkunun, it should be pressure on Saudi Arabian authorities to return to their family forced, that would bring in the "real danger". Male relatives had beaten and threatened with death. A year and a half she had been locked in her room because she had cut her hair shorter.

Saudi women, even in adult age, under the guardianship of their male relatives. To flee from domestic violence, means a risk for you. Alkunun is not the first woman who flees from the paternalism: 2017 Dina Lasloom caused a stir. The woman had been stopped on their way to Australia and back to Saudi Arabia.