Saudi teenager under UN care after ‘family’s vow to kill her for rejecting Islam’
A SAUDI teenager who barricaded herself inside a Thailand hotel after fleeing her family has left under the protection of the UN refugee agency.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, claimed her relatives had threatened to kill her on her return home after her decision to renounce Islam.
She posted video on social media showing herself barricading her Bangkok hotel door as she attempted to win asylum in Australia.
Ms al-Qunun was due to be repatriated by Kuwait Airways yesterday, but the flight took off without her.
She claimed her cousin had already threatened to “slaughter” her, adding: “My brothers and family, and the Saudi embassy, will be waiting for me in Kuwait.
“Staff from the Saudi embassy and Kuwait Airways said, ‘If you run, we will find you and kidnap you, then deal with you’.” Relatives have not commented on her claims.
She said that Saudi and Kuwaiti officials took her passport, a claim backed by Human Rights Watch, after a relative reported her for travelling without a male guardian. The teenager also asked Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for help in obtaining a UK travel document. Surachate Hakparn, chief of Thailand’s immigration police, confirmed she was “allowed to stay”, and that she “left the airport with the UNHCR”.
He added: “We will not send anyone to die.” She tweeted that her father had arrived, “which worried and scared me a lot”, but said she felt safe “under UNHCR protection with the agreement of Thailand authorities”.