Saudi teenager’s fate hangs in the balance

By The Nation

 

 

GOVT SHIFTS LINE ON ASYLUM SEEKER AFTER GLOBAL OUTCRY; SAUDI TEENAGER IS ALLOWED TO STAY IN THAILAND FOR FIVE DAYS UNDER THE CARE OF UN

 

 

THAILAND LANDED in hot water yesterday after government officials initially indicated they planned to deport a Saudi teenager who was stopped in Bangkok en route to Australia to seek asylum, drawing objections from the international community and rights advocates. 

 

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan insisted yesterday morning that 18-year-old Rahaf Mohanned al-Qunun had to be sent back to her family despite her claims that they had abused her and would kill her when she returned. 

 

 

Immigration chief Surachate Hakparn initially echoed the sentiment, but said at a press conference hours later that al-Qunun would not be forcibly deported after all.

 

Prawit had seen no other option. “The case concerns only Saudi Arabia and Thailand, no third country,” he said. “We cannot send her to the third country as requested because we have no power to do that.”

 

Surachate, hours later: “If deporting her would result in her death, we definitely wouldn’t want to do that.”

 

Al-Qunun was detained on Saturday during transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Surachate claiming she had no visa to enter Thailand.

 

Al-Qunan told rights groups and reporters that a representative of the Saudi embassy in Bangkok had intercepted her at the airport and seized her passport. 

 

 

The teenager said she wanted to avoid a forced marriage arranged by her family, whom she accused of physical and psychological abuse. She departed from Kuwait, bound for Australia, while the family were travelling. 

 

She said she was “100 per cent sure” her family would kill her if she was sent back. 

 

Thai-Saudi relations have been strained ever since a major ruction over a Thai migrant worker’s theft of a diamond from the Saudi royal palace and the assassinations of Saudi diplomats in Bangkok in 1989-1990. Several attempts have since been made to normalise relations, none successful. 

 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Busadee Santipitaks said the ministry had no advance notice of plans to turn back al-Qunun. “The case is under the jurisdiction of the Immigration Bureau under the 1979 Immigration Act,” she said. “This action was taken according to the law and related regulations.”

 

Having barricaded herself in a hotel room at the airport, al-Qunun has been keeping followers updated about her situation via tweets, videos and interviews with foreign media outlets. The Twitter account, which appears to be managed by more than one person, has issued appeals to foreign diplomats for help, as well as to US President Donald Trump.

 

In one video posted last night from her hotel room, she refused to leave her room until she could meet with representatives of the UN High Commission for Refugees. Photos tweeted showed a mattress jammed up against the room’s main door, blocking entrance.

 

 

UNHCR spokesperson Caroline Gluck told The Nation that access had been granted to the agency to assess al-Qunun’s need for its protection. After the two hour meeting, the teenager left the airport hotel under the care of UN. She was allowed to stay in Thailand for five days while the UN was considering her asylum request, said immigration chief Surachate.

 

The agency maintains that refugees and asylum seekers – whether confirmed to be in need of its protection or claiming to need it – cannot legally be returned to their countries of origin, the UNHRC said in a statement, citing the principle of “non-refoulement”. 

 

The principle prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. It is enshrined in treaty obligations to which Thailand is a signatory. 

 

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also urged Thai authorities to block the deportation and allow al-Qunun to make her case through the Bangkok office of the UNHCR and to respect its decision. 

 

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

 

“The Thai authorities are bound by the general prohibition not to transfer persons to any place where they would face a real risk of serious human rights abuses.” 

 

Added Samah Hadid, Amnesty’s Middle East director of campaigns: “Al-Qunun is entitled to fair and effective safeguards against any deportation and to international protection.”

 

Angkhana Neelapaijit, a National Human Rights Commissioner, said al-Qunun must be allowed to meet with UNHCR officials to determine if she warrants asylum status. 

 

“We must talk to her foreign ministry, and the Immigration Bureau must explain its actions because she’s a woman and a minor,” Angkhana said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361805

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-08

'They will kill me': Saudi woman to seek asylum after fleeing family to Thailand

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

 

A hotel inside transit area at Suvarnabhumi Airport where Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, an 18-year-old Saudi woman who claims to be fleeing her family has barricaded herself inside a room in Bangkok, Thailand January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family and barricaded herself inside a Bangkok airport hotel to prevent being expelled by Thai authorities has left the airport after talks with the United Nations refugee agency, an official said on Monday.

 

Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has been at Bangkok's international airport since Saturday when she arrived from Kuwait, saying she fears her family will kill her if she is forced to return home. Her relatives have not commented on her accusations of abuse and Reuters was not able to reach them.

 

The case has drawn new global attention to Saudi Arabia's strict social rules, including a requirement that women have the permission of a male "guardian" to travel, which rights groups say can trap women and girls as prisoners of abusive families.

 

It comes at a time when Riyadh is facing unusually intense scrutiny from its Western allies over the killing of a journalist at its consulate in Istanbul in October and over the humanitarian consequences of its war in Yemen.

 

Thai immigration officials had planned to put Qunun on a flight back to Kuwait on Monday, but relented after her online pleas drew international attention.

 

She told Reuters via text and audio messages she had fled Kuwait during a family visit there, and had planned to travel to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was held after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait.

 

"They will kill me," Qunun told Reuters. "My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things."

 

A representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) met Qunun at the airport and also discussed the case with Thai immigration officials. After the meeting, Thailand's immigration chief said she would not be expelled.

 

"We will take her into Bangkok and provide her with safe shelter under the care of the UNHCR," immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters on Monday evening.

 

He said the UNHCR would work on processing Qunun's request for refugee status. Giuseppe de Vincentis, the UNHCR representative in Thailand, said the Thai government had given assurances Qunun would not be expelled to any country where she might be in danger while her case was being processed.

 

"PHYISICAL, EMOTIONAL ABUSE"

Qunun posted a video on Twitter on Monday of her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress. She said her family was powerful in Saudi society but she did not identify them.

 

Asked why she was seeking refuge in Australia, she told Reuters: "Physical, emotional and verbal abuse and being imprisoned inside the house for months. They threaten to kill me and prevent me from continuing my education.

 

"They won't let me drive or travel. I am oppressed. I love life and work and I am very ambitious but my family is preventing me from living."

 

The Saudi foreign ministry said in a tweet that its embassy was in touch with the woman's father and the Thai government, but its diplomats had not met or communicated with her.

 

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thailand should not send Qunun back to her family because she says she faces danger.

 

Qunun said she had obtained an Australian visa and booked a flight. She said she had planned to spend a few days in Thailand so she would not spark suspicion when she left Kuwait.

 

Thai immigration chief Surachate, however, said that Qunun did not have a visa for Australia. The Australian Embassy said it had no immediate comment.

 

Contradicting earlier accounts from Thai officials, Surachate said Thai authorities had been contacted by the Saudis before deciding to deny Qunun entry to the country.

 

"The Saudi Arabia embassy contacted the immigration police ... and said that the girl had run away from her parents and they fear for her safety," he said.

 

"We acknowledged this and checked her paperwork. She had a passport but no return ticket, no travel plan, and no destination or hotel reservation in Thailand ... so per airport security procedures, immigration denied her entry."

 

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um in BANGKOK and Ghaida Ghantous in DUBAI; Editing by Nick Macfie and Peter Graff)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-08

59 minutes ago, webfact said:

“The Thai authorities are bound by the general prohibition not to transfer persons to any place where they would face a real risk of serious human rights abuses.” 

Expect a flood of similar situations to come about now that this woman has showed that immigration rules can be flaunted and circumvented by simply saying that your life is in dander true or not...

She will be back in Saudi within 18 months. I am not wishing it but it always turns out like this. The Saudi family will never give up and will resort to all means certainly including use of the powerful Saudi state apparatus to get her back dead or alive.

 

It is entirely conceivable that the Thais will abruptly change their decision if enough dollars are waved around.

 

Also this young lady is 18, will miss her friends, will probably have her bank accounts frozen and income stream cut off and the Saudis will use that to pressure her home without having to use kidnapping.

Funny how things move fast in Thailand when an initially outrageous issue is taken public on social media,  and only then the right thing is done.

Will this be now a queue jump,

lucky for her if it is,

good luck to her,

Just another example of Big Joke doing/ saying anything, then twisting it, just to get media coverage.

1 minute ago, colinneil said:

Just another example of Big Joke doing/ saying anything, then twisting it, just to get media coverage.

Absolutely.

It went from him saying:

the girl was refused entry as she didn't have an onward ticket/sufficient funds to enter Thailand, even though she was only transiting, and also allowing Saudi 'diplomats' to meet the plane

to:

they would never send her back anywhere to a death sentence and now allowing five (?) days in the country to organise her onward travel documents.

Some troll posts have been removed. 

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Expect a flood of similar situations to come about now that this woman has showed that immigration rules can be flaunted and circumvented by simply saying that your life is in dander true or not...

Wrong, for a start she has a visa to enter Australia, she can then put her case to the Australian officials, no different to sports team members, other countries diplomats etc, who also apply for asylum.

Another thing, she did not go through Thai immigration, so technically did NOT enter Thailand, without a visa, Thai immigration are full of crap.

29 minutes ago, leeneeds said:

Will this be now a queue jump,

lucky for her if it is,

good luck to her,

Read my post below, it could be number 10, thought at the moment it shows as 1.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The principle prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. It is enshrined in treaty obligations to which Thailand is a signatory. 

but only under public scrutiny and fear of tarnishing thailand's self-purported 'international reputation', did thailand back down from it's initial stance of deporting her despite what might become of her

2 hours ago, webfact said:

“The case concerns only Saudi Arabia and Thailand, no third country,” he said. “We cannot send her to the third country as requested because we have no power to do that.”

Does this mean she does not have a visa for Australia? The Saudi authorities took her passport at the airport, so I see her in a difficult situation. I assume Thailand has no right to demand the passport back. She should apply for refugee status here, if she wants to avoid returning the Saudi Arabia. 

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Expect a flood of similar situations to come about now that this woman has showed that immigration rules can be flaunted and circumvented by simply saying that your life is in dander true or not...

I don't see any flood happening. Not that they really care but Saudi Arabia has received an awful lot of bad publicity lately. Cutting people up with a bone saw and melting their remains in acid does attract a lot of attention.

However, I say no flood because they will quietly plug the leaks and make it very difficult for anyone else to leave.

Maybe they will talk to their friend about building a wall but this one to keep people in, not out.

Everyone has a right to be safe and to leave abusive life threatening situations.  Nothing in any governments' protocols should prevent that.  It's called Humaneness.

They cannot send her here as it seems to me that if she did get sent here she would be que jumping which is totally unfair on all those trying to live in Australia legally. Please don't get me wrong I do care about people and the need to help but because Thailand stopped her she is there responsibility and there that's where she must find asylum, trusting your in safe hands young lady. 

Interesting to read the reporting and comments on this story.  In Australia when it was originally reported it was being spun to vilify the Australian Government for not protecting the person.  At least now that more information has been forthcoming this appears to not be as prevalent. 

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

Expect a flood of similar situations to come about now that this woman has showed that immigration rules can be flaunted and circumvented by simply saying that your life is in dander true or not...

She is an adult, traveling on a valid passport with an airline ticket and visa to Australia.  She had no intention of staying in Thailand, so what right have Thailand got to interfere with her travel arrangements. especially considering the consequences of returning her to her country of birth.

The Saudi “authorities” have no right to seize her passport. She is not a “minor”. The third country to which she is attempting to travel to (Australia) has given her a visa as far as can be determined.  However how to get the passport back. She may need to travel on a UN passport to Australia. Let’s hope this gets sorted pronto for this fearful young woman, but I doubt this will move fast. Thailand may use it as a case for improving relations. 

More to this story as sufficient funds and proof of where you will be staying is required  before a Australian tourist visa will be issued and also a onward ticket is not needed so not sure why she was asked for one.

2 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Funny how things move fast in Thailand when an initially outrageous issue is taken public on social media,  and only then the right thing is done.

Surely the Thai government must demand that the Saudi embassy return her stolen passport and allow her journey to Australia to continue. I am sure that she has picked a safe country to which to flee, probably better than the USA which appears to be completely beholding to Saudi control.

Honestly not sure where I stand on this one... I commend her for getting away and denouncing Islam and their barbaric laws but you open the gates to one... just saying...

I vote to let her into Australia, she is a gutsy kid.

19 minutes ago, alation said:

They cannot send her here as it seems to me that if she did get sent here she would be que jumping which is totally unfair on all those trying to live in Australia legally. Please don't get me wrong I do care about people and the need to help but because Thailand stopped her she is there responsibility and there that's where she must find asylum, trusting your in safe hands young lady. 

She was in transit for goodness sake!  which means that she never entered Thailand, this has been stuffed up by Big Joke and his hoons, let her continue her journey and let Australia deal with it, they will know whether she is genuine or not and will at accordingly.

23 minutes ago, alation said:

They cannot send her here as it seems to me that if she did get sent here she would be que jumping which is totally unfair on all those trying to live in Australia legally. Please don't get me wrong I do care about people and the need to help but because Thailand stopped her she is there responsibility and there that's where she must find asylum, trusting your in safe hands young lady. 

Safe hands? Once interest/coverage has died down, she will be sent back to Saudi, and never seen or heard of again. Money talks, and the Saudis have a lot of it. 

 

Her only hope is to get to Australia - I hope UNHCR can ensure that.

Edited January 8, 20197 yr by JAG

23 minutes ago, alation said:

They cannot send her here as it seems to me that if she did get sent here she would be que jumping which is totally unfair on all those trying to live in Australia legally. Please don't get me wrong I do care about people and the need to help but because Thailand stopped her she is there responsibility and there that's where she must find asylum, trusting your in safe hands young lady. 

Rubbish !  you need to learn between genuine refugees and queue jumping economic refugees.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/saudi-woman-under-the-care-of-un-agency-thai-official-11094672

There are so many details to this story that have totally changed since it first broke that to take as fact anything printed can only lead to more incorrect speculation.

Nobody going to address the blood on her jeans? 

16 minutes ago, Pember said:

Honestly not sure where I stand on this one... I commend her for getting away and denouncing Islam and their barbaric laws but you open the gates to one... just saying...

She didn't intend to stay in Thailand, it was a stop-off destination for Australia, to which it seems she has a visa for.. You live in Thailand right? Maybe you should return home as this isn't your homeland