BANGKOK, Jan 11 (TNA) – Canada and Australia are among
the countries considering asylum for Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed Al-Qunun who
allegedly fled her family to avoid arranged marriage and abuses.
Countries including Canada and Australia had been in talks
with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to accept the Saudi
asylum-seeker, Thailand’s Immigration Bureau chief Lt Pol-Gen Surachate Hakparn
told reporters on Friday.
Pol Lt-General Surachet indicated earlier that a decision on
her request would be known on Friday.
Although it had been five days since the request was made
the process could be extended as the UNHCR was expediting the case, he said.
He could not tell when the process would be complete but the
18-year-old Saudi was in good care, said Pol Lt-General Surachet.
Al-Qunun was stopped at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on
Saturday. She barricaded herself in an
airport hotel room and launched a social media campaign that drew global
attention and public and diplomatic support, including a tweet “My family will
kill me” on her Twitter account.
She was later passed on under the protection of U.N.
officials.
Her family came to Thailand trying to convince her to return
home but she refused to meet them.(TNA)
