Thailand halted plans on Monday to expel an 18-year-old Saudi woman fleeing her family after she barricaded herself inside an airport hotel to prevent immigration officials putting her on a flight to Kuwait.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has been at Bangkok’s international airport since Saturday when she arrived on a flight from Kuwait. She has said she fears she will be killed if she is returned to her family, which could not be reached for comment on her accusations of abuse Reuters reported.
Thai officials now plan to meet representatives of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to discuss the case, immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told reporters.
He earlier denied allegations by Qunun that she was being detained at the request of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry also denied her allegations that its embassy had confiscated her passport, saying in a Tweet she was stopped at the airport for violating Thai immigration laws.
Qunun posted a video on Twitter on Monday of her barricading her hotel door with a table and a mattress.
She told Reuters she fled Kuwait while her family was visiting the Gulf country and had planned to travel from Thailand to Australia to seek asylum. She said she was detained after leaving her plane in Bangkok and told she would be sent back to Kuwait.
“My brothers and family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait,” Qunun said by text and voice message from the hotel on Sunday.
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“They will kill me,” she said. “My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things.”
Asked why she was seeking refuge in Australia, she said: “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.”
In her initial social media pleas, Qunun said her family was powerful in Saudi society but she did not identify them.
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