Riyadh flays nations for granting ‘asylum’

ASaudi human rights group said that it was shocked by how countries and international organisations incited young Saudi women offenders to rebel against the values of their families, encouraged them to leave their countries and then welcomed them under the pretext of granting them asylum.

“Such methods are politically motivated and are not humanitarian acts,” Mufleh Al Qahtani, head of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said in a press statement.

“These countries and organisations are reluctant to receive genuine refugees and even let them die at sea. What these countries and organisations are doing is incitement of girls who are still impressionable and cannot make sound decisions yet and pushing them to rebel against their families that provide them with lasting care and a decent life. I am afraid that some of them end up becoming lost or being used by traffickers.”

Such attitudes by these states and organisations are an abuse of rights of young girls to live with their families, he added. “They could be seriously hurt and left to face the unknown. These countries should put an end to their attitudes that are politically motivated.”

Girls and boys who face abuse within their families are entitled under Saudi laws to complain to the competent authorities and to human rights groups and let justice take its course, he added.

Al Qahtani issued the statement on Sunday days after a Saudi teenager, who fled to Bangkok reportedly to escape from her abusive family, was granted asylum in Canada.