BANGKOK, Jan 08 (Agencies): An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family at the weekend has reiterated her plea for asylum in Canada, the United States, Australia or the UK.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun refused to board a flight from Bangkok to Kuwait on Monday and barricaded herself into her airport hotel room.
She said she feared her family would kill her as she had renounced Islam and is under the care of the UN in Bangkok.
Renunciation, known as apostasy, is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Thai immigration officials had said that she should return to Kuwait, where her family is.
Ms Mohammed al-Qunun captured the attention of social media users around the world by live tweeting every twist and turn to her case. Her brand new Twitter account attracted 50,000 followers in a day and a half.
On Tuesday morning she retweeted her original plea for asylum, adding in a subsequent tweet: "I want Canada to give me asylum."
Canada/United States/ Australia /United kingdom, I ask any if it Representatives to contact me.
The Australian government said it was "pleased" the UN refugee agency was assessing her claim.
"Any application by Ms al-Qunun for a humanitarian visa will be carefully considered once the UNHCR process has concluded," a Department of Home Affairs official told AFP.
Meanwhile, the father of an 18-year-old Saudi woman asylum seeker who fled to Thailand saying she feared her family would kill her, has arrived in Bangkok and wants to meet his daughter, Thailand's immigration chief said on Tuesday.
But Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun's father and brother would have to wait and see whether the UN refugee agency would allow them to see her, immigration chief Surachate Hakpan said.
Saudi woman seeks asylum
Father in Bangkok to meet her
FE Team | Published: January 08, 2019 21:44:54
Saudi woman seeks asylum
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