Trudeau: Canada grants asylum to Saudi girl Rahaf al-Qunun

SANAA, Jan. 12 (YPA) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada would grant asylum to a Saudi woman fleeing alleged family abuse.

Justin Trudeau said on Friday that he had granted asylum to the Saudi girl Rahaf (18) after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had found that she was a real refugee and needed protection.

The Saudi girl, Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has left Thailand on Friday night for the Republic of Korea heading to Canada, where she was granted asylum after fleeing her family for fear of her life.

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has submitted a request to Canada to accept the refugees as a refugee, and we have accepted the United Nations request to grant her asylum,” Trudeau told reporters in the western Canadian city of Regina

Rahaf al-Qunun said that she fled domestic violence in Saudi Arabia, plans to enter Australia on a tourist visa and then seek asylum.

However, Thai immigration authorities stopped her after arriving at an airport in Bangkok on Saturday.

Rahaf’s case had aroused international interest after resorting to social media sites to seek help, as they were in a hotel room at the airport.

The Thai authorities granted her a temporary stay in Bangkok under UNHCR’s trusteeship on Monday.

E.M