Free Rahaf: Saudi woman seeking asylum barricades herself inside Thai hotel room

A Saudi teenager has barricaded herself in a Thai hotel room in a desperate attempt to prevent her deportation back home, where she fears she will be killed by her family.

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, was stopped by immigration officials in Bangkok on Saturday while she was on her way to Australia to claim asylum.   

She was due to be deported to Kuwait on Monday, but she locked herself in her hotel room and took to social media to ask for help.

“I’m calling for all people inside the transit area in Bangkok to protest against deporting me to Kuwait,” she wrote on Twitter. “Please I need u all. I’m shouting out for help of humanity.”

Following a flurry of attention and demands from rights groups that her deportation be halted, Thailand’s chief of immigration police Surachate Hakparn said Ms Qunun would not be sent anywhere against her wishes.  

The incident comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is under increased scrutiny over its rights record, and the use of rendition against activists to silence opposition. Women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from travelling without the permission of a male guardian. Ms Qunun was only able to travel on her own because she had been in Kuwait, which doesn’t have the same law. 

Ms Qunun said she was fleeing her abusive family, and regularly suffers beatings and death threats from her brothers.

“My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait,” Ms Qunun told Reuters on Sunday.

“They will kill me,” she said. “My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things.”

 

The flight to Kuwait that Ms Qunun was supposed to be on left without her on Monday. Rights groups had earlier called for Thai authorities to remove the threat of deportation and allow her to apply for asylum.

“Thai authorities should immediately halt any deportation, and either allow her to continue her travel to Australia or permit her to remain in Thailand to seek protection as a refugee,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will,” he said.

Nadthasiri Bergman, a human rights lawyer, filed an injunction on Monday in an attempt to block the deportation, but it was rejected by a Bangkok court, according to AFP. 

Thai immigration authorities said Ms Qunun was refused entry because she did not have the proper documents.

“We have contacted Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry in order to send her back to her country of origin,” Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters. “She will not be sent to a third country because we don’t have the authority to do so.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations refugee agency said it was trying to meet with Ms Qunun to investigate her case. 

“UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers … cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened,” it said in a statement.