Saudi woman blocks Bangkok deportation move

A young Saudi woman Rahaf al-Qunun, has said she has fled her family in fear for her life, and barricaded herself in her hotel room at Bangkok Airport, the BBC reported a short while ago.

Thai immigration officials want to send back 18-year-old Rahaf to Kuwait, where her family is.

However, she refused to board a flight to Kuwait City on Monday, despite officials stationed outside her room.

"My brothers, family and the Saudi embassy will be waiting for me in Kuwait. They will kill me. My life is in danger. My family threatens to kill me for the most trivial things," the teenager has told Reuters.

Rights groups including Human Rights Watch, have expressed grave concerns over Rahaf 's welfare.

"She has barricaded herself in the room and says she will not leave" until she is allowed to meet the UN refugee agency and claim asylum," Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Twitter.

Ms Mohammed al-Qunun was on holiday with her family in Kuwait when she fled two days ago.

She was trying to head to Australia via a connecting flight in Bangkok.

She says her passport was seized as she disembarked from a flight from Kuwait on Sunday.

The Saudi embassy in Bangkok said she has been held at the airport "because she didn't have a return ticket" and that she is set to be deported to Kuwait "where most of her family lives".

Ms Mohammed al-Qunun insists she has a visa for Australia, and that she never wanted to stay in Thailand. She says her passport was seized by a Saudi diplomat who met her coming off the flight at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Saudi officials say she still has her passport but is being detained for not having a return ticket.

The Saudi Embassy in Bangkok said Saudi authorities do not have the authority to hold her at the airport or anywhere else. Officials are in touch with her father, the Embassy added.

Ms Mohammed al-Qunun started attracting attention with her social media posts over the weekend. She told BBC that she was in a hotel in the transit area.

"I shared my story and my pictures on social media and my father is so angry because I did this.I can't study and work in my country, so I want to be free and study and work as I want," she said.

Ms Mohammed al-Qunun wrote on Twitter that she had decided to share her name and details because she had "nothing to lose" now. She has asked for asylum from governments around the world.