The father of Saudi asylum seeker Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has arrived in Bangkok and wants to meet his daughter, Thailand’s immigration chief said on Tuesday.
But he would have to wait and see whether the UN refugee agency would allow them to see her, immigration chief Surachate Hakpan said. “The father and brother want to go and talk to Rahaf but the UN will need to approve such talk,” Mr. Surachate told reporters.
The UN refugee agency on Tuesday said that it was investigating the case after Ms. Qunun fled to Thailand, saying that she feared her family would kill her if she were sent back to Saudi Arabia.
Activists are concerned about what Saudi Arabia will do after Thai authorities reversed a decision to expel her and allowed Ms. Qunun to enter the country under the care of the UNHCR. “The father is now here in Thailand and that’s a source of concern,” Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia, said.
Application for asylum
Ms. Qunun is staying in a Bangkok hotel while the UNHCR processes her application for refugee status, before she can seek asylum in a third country. UNHCR staff were interviewing her on Tuesday after meeting her the day before. “It could take several days to process the case and determine next steps,” UNHCR’s Thailand representative Giuseppe de Vincentiis said.
Lawmakers and activists in Australia and Britain have urged their governments to grant asylum to Ms. Qunun.
The Australian government said it had asked Thailand and the UNHCR to process Ms. Qunun’s claim quickly, and it would consider her application for a humanitarian visa once the UNHCR had made its decision
Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Thailand denied reports that Riyadh had requested her extradition.
