A Saudi teenager detained at Bangkok airport and threatened with deportation has been permitted to remain in Thailand to be assessed by the UN after saying that she feared she would be killed if she was forced to return home.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, arrived at the Thai capital’s Suvarnabhumi airport on Saturday from Kuwait, planning to continue to Australia. But she said Saudi embassy officials in Bangkok seized her passport and were trying to return her to Saudi Arabia via a flight to Kuwait.
She said family members had threatened to have her killed as she appealed to the UN to help her seek refugee status or political asylum in Canada, the US, Australia or the UK.
“I’m formally asking the United Nation[s] to help me seek a refugee status or asylum to any of these countries,” she said in one of a series of Twitter posts on Monday from the hotel room in which she was being held. In another she posted a picture of her barricaded inside, with a chain lock on the door and a mattress blocking the way.
As Ms Qunun’s plight made headlines around the world, Thailand’s immigration police chief said on Monday evening that the teenager would be admitted into the kingdom for evaluation by the UNHRC, the refugee agency. Major General Surachate Hakparn told reporters that she would be granted entry under protection of the UNHCR, which would take at least five to seven days to evaluate her case.
The UN agency said it had been given access to Ms Qunun “to assess her need for international protection”. It added: “UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers — having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection — cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement.”
A flight to Kuwait on which Ms Qunun was due to be deported left without her earlier on Monday, Thailand’s immigration bureau said. It had said that the teenager was denied entry to Thailand and faced deportation because she could not show a return ticket or proof of funds or accommodation.
The Saudi embassy in Bangkok denied that officials had taken away Ms Qunun’s passport. “[Thai] immigration refused to give her entry because she doesn’t have a return ticket,” the embassy told the Financial Times. “Nobody took her passport.”
The case of Ms Qunun highlights the conflicting forces that have shaped the status of women in Saudi Arabia in recent years.
While the economic and social reform plan led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has offered more rights and opportunities for women to work and participate in public life, many remain at the mercy of male relatives thanks to guardianship rules based on tribal culture and a narrow interpretation of Islam.
Under Saudi Arabia’s restrictive male guardianship system, adult women must obtain permission from a male guardian, usually a family member, to marry or travel abroad.
A similar situation to Ms Qunun’s unfolded in 2017 when a woman named Dina Ali Lasloom attempted to flee Saudi Arabia to seek asylum in Australia. She was stopped in transit in the Philippines and forcibly returned to the kingdom. It remains unclear what has happened to her since.
Human rights groups said Thailand, a hub for international flights, had a record of not respecting the principle of non-refoulement, which protects people seeking asylum or refugee status from being returned to countries where they could face serious human rights abuses.
“This reflects a new low in how Thailand collaborates with repressive foreign governments to help them hunt down those who flee from violence, human rights abuses and other forms of persecution,” said Sunai Phasuk, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, just before news emerged that Ms Qunun had been allowed to stay in Thailand to be assessed by the UN.
Hakeem al-Araibi, a Bahraini former footballer and human rights activist, is being held in Thailand while he appeals an extradition request from his home country. Mr Araibi, who had been granted refugee status in Australia, was detained in November while on honeymoon by officials responding to a Bahraini extradition request. He says he will face torture if he is returned.
The behaviour of Saudi diplomats overseas is under scrutiny in the wake of the killing in October of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist and activist, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
