UN asks Aust to consider Saudi teen for resettlement
SYDNEY: The United Nations has asked Australia to consider refugee resettlement for an 18yearold Saudi woman who fled to Thailand saying she feared her family would kill her, the Australian Government said yesterday.
The teenager, Rahaf Mohammed alQunun, arrived in Bangkok at the weekend appealing for asylum. Australia said it would consider resettling her if the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) deemed her a refugee.
‘‘The UNHCR has referred Ms Rahaf Mohammed alQunun to Australia for consideration for refugee resettlement,’’ Australia’s Department of Home land Security said in an email.
The department said it would consider the referral ‘‘in the usual way, as it does with all UNHCR referrals’’. It declined to comment further.
Qunun arrived in Bangkok on Saturday and was initially denied entry.
She soon started posting messages on Twitter from the transit area of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport saying she had ‘‘escaped Kuwait’’ and her life would be in danger if forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
Within hours, a campaign sprung up on Twitter, spread by a loose network of activists around the world.
Within 36 hours it prompted Thailand’s Government to reverse a decision to force the young woman on to a plane that would return her to her family.
She was allowed to enter Thailand and on Tuesday began the process of seeking asylum in a third country through the UN refugee agency.
ABC journalist Sophie McNeill flew to Thailand to meet Qunun, arriving on Monday and managing to join Qunun in her hotel room.
Qunun refused to open the door when various officials came to escort her to a Kuwait Airways flight.
‘‘We were inside the room and there were numerous people coming to the door . . . There were several Arabic speakers who came and were using threatening language to try and force her back on the plane,’’ McNeill said.
The Thai immigration office released a video clip of its officials meeting Saudi diplomats to discuss the case.
‘‘When she first arrived in Thailand, she opened a new site (account) and the followers reached about 45,000 within one day,’’ a Saudi official speaking in Arabic through a translator tells Thai officials in the video.
‘‘I wish you had taken her phone, it would have been better than [taking] her passport,’’ the Saudi official said.