Australia To Consider Asylum Plea Of Fugitive Saudi Teen Fleeing Forced Marriage - Reports

Australia is ready to carefully consider an asylum application from young Saudi woman Rahaf Alqunun, who fled her home country for fear of being forced to marry, media reported on Tuesday, citing the Department of Home Affairs

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2019) Australia is ready to carefully consider an asylum application from young Saudi woman Rahaf Alqunun, who fled her home country for fear of being forced to marry, media reported on Tuesday, citing the Department of Home Affairs.

Earlier in the day, Alqunun, 18, left Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport, where she spent nearly four days after the escape from Saudi Arabia, under the protection of employees of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok. The Thai authorities allowed the Saudi fugitive to stay in the country for five days, the period, during which the UN personnel should find a safe country which will provide Alqunun with a permanent shelter.

"Any application by Ms Al-Qunun for a humanitarian visa will be carefully considered once the UNHCR process has concluded," a spokesman for the department told SBS news.

The spokesman added that Canberra had expressed its concerns over the situation to the Thai government and the UNHCR office in Bangkok, stressing the need to expedite the processing of woman's case.

Alqunun arrived in Bangkok on Saturday as an in-transit passenger on her way to Australia. In the transit lounge, the woman had her passport seized by the Saudi Arabian Embassy's staff at her father's request. Alqunun was offered to fly to her homeland on the first plane to Saudi Arabia, however, the woman refused to do so and stayed in the airport's transit zone.