Saudi teenager is granted asylum in Canada

BANGKOK: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will grant asylum to a Saudi woman fleeing alleged family abuse. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees granted her refugee status on Wednesday. Trudeau said Canada accepted the UN’S request.

Thailand’s immigration police chief said Rahaf Mohammed al-qunun, 18, had left on a flight headed for Canada on Friday.

Alqunun was stopped last Saturday at a Bangkok airport by immigration police who denied her entry and seized her passport. She barricaded herself in an airport hotel room and launched a social media campaign that drew global attention to her case.

The move could further upset Saudi-canada relations. In August, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador to the kingdom and withdrew its own ambassador after Canada’s foreign ministry supported women’s rights activists who had been arrested. The Saudis also sold Canadian investments and ordered their citizens studying in Canada to leave. |