Rahaf al-Qunun: Saudi teenager given refugee status by the UN. By Lisa Martin and Naaman Zhou
Saudi teenager Rahaf
Mohammed al-Qunun has been found to be a refugee by the United Nations, and
the Australian government will now consider her asylum request, according to
the Department of Home Affairs. The 18-year-old
woman barricaded herself in a Bangkok airport hotel room on Sunday to
prevent her forcible return to Saudi Arabia, where she claims her family will
kill her because she has renounced Islam.
On Wednesday, the UN
high commissioner for refugees assessed Qunun, found her to be a refugee and
referred her to Australia for resettlement. The Department of Home
Affairs said it “will consider this referral in the usual way, as it does with
all UNHCR referrals”. A UNHCR spokeswoman
told the Guardian that Qunun would remain in their care until a long-term
solution has been found. “She remains in a safe location in Bangkok for the
time being,” she said.
Earlier on Wednesday,
Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton,
had warned there will be “no special treatment” for Qunun, despite a
groundswell of support for the woman. The Australian
director of Human Rights Watch Australia, Elaine Pearson, said the Australian
government should “act quickly” to bring her safely to Australia. “She is a young Saudi woman whose face has
been plastered around the world,” Pearson said. “She’s more at risk than other
refugees, not just from her family but threats she has faced online and from
her own government.
“We all know what the
Saudi government is capable of doing on foreign soil. I would hope that, once
her claim has been assessed, the Australian government will act quickly to get
her out of Thailand and
to safety.”.. read more:
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