INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun said her passport was seized at Bangkok airport
Human Rights Watch has called on Thai authorities to stop the planned deportation of a Saudi woman who is reportedly being held at
Bangkok's main airport.Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, who says she is trying to flee her family, is set to be deported to Kuwait on Monday.Ms
Mohammed al-Qunun was in Kuwait on holiday with her family when she fled two days ago.She was trying to head to Australia via a connecting
flight in Bangkok.Ms Mohammed al-Qunun started attracting attention with her social media posts over the weekend.She says she has an
Australian visa but her passport was seized by a Saudi diplomat when he met her coming off the flight at Suvarnabhumi airport.Saudi
officials say she still has her passport but is being detained for not having a return ticket.Frightened and confusedMs Mohammed al-Qunun
told the TheIndianSubcontinent that she had renounced Islam, and feared she would be forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia and killed by her
family.The TheIndianSubcontinent's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says Ms Mohammed al-Qunun is frightened and confused
Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement: "Saudi women fleeing their families can face severe
violence from relatives, deprivation of liberty, and other serious harm if returned against their will."The Saudi embassy in Bangkok said
she has been held at the airport "because she didn't have a return ticket" and that she is set to be deported to Kuwait on Monday "where
most of her family lives".Saudi authorities do not have the authority to hold her at the airport or anywhere else, the statement
said.Officials are now in touch with her father, it added.'Family problem'Thai police Major General Surachate Hakparn told the
TheIndianSubcontinent that Ms Mohammed al-Qunun was escaping a marriage
Because she did not have a visa to enter Thailand, he said, police had denied her entry and were in the process of repatriating her through
the same airline she had taken - Kuwait Airways - by Monday morning.Gen Surachate said he was unaware of any passport seizure.He told AFP
the case was a "family problem" and the teenager "had no further documents such as [a] return ticket or money".However, Human Rights Watch
Asia deputy director Phil Robertson told the TheIndianSubcontinent: "It seems that the Thai government is manufacturing a story that she
tried to apply for a visa and it was denied in fact, she had an onward ticket to go to Australia, she didn't want to enter Thailand in the
first place." He argued that the Thai authorities had clearly co-operated with Saudi Arabia as Saudi officials were able to meet the plane
when it arrived.Ms Mohammed al-Qunun told TheIndianSubcontinent Newshour she was now in a hotel in the transit area.She said: "I shared my
story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this I can't study and work in my country, so I want to be
free and study and work as I want."Ms Mohammed al-Qunun wrote on Twitter that she had decided to share her name and details because she had
"nothing to lose" now.She also shared a picture of her passport "because I want you to know I'm real and exist".Another tweet read: "I'm
afraid my family will kill me."The Australian government has not responded to requests for comment.The case echoes that of another Saudi
woman who was in transit to Australia in April 2017.Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, was en route from Kuwait via the Philippines but was taken back to
Saudi Arabia from Manila airport by her family.She used a Canadian tourist's phone to send a message, a video of which was posted to
Twitter, saying her family would kill her.Her fate on arriving back in Saudi Arabia remains unknown.
