A Saudi woman has barricaded herself inside a Bangkok hotel room to avoid being returned to her family who she says will kill her after she renounced Islam and tried to flee to Australia.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, has been at Bangkok airport since Saturday when she was denied entry by Thai immigration officials, who deny her accusations that she was detained at the behest of the Saudi government.
The teenager was due to have been escorted onto a flight to Kuwait this morning - but she never boarded the plane and has posted a clip on Twitter of her barricading her hotel door with a table, mattresses and a chair.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry denied her allegations that its embassy had confiscated her passport, saying in a Tweet she was originally stopped at the airport for violating Thai immigration laws.
But Abdulilah al-Shouaibi, charge d'affaires at Bangkok's Saudi embassy, has acknowledged that the woman's father contacted them for 'help' to bring her back.
This morning, a human rights lawyer filed an injunction at Bangkok's Criminal Court to prevent Rahaf from being deported.
'When we suspect that someone might be illegally detained, we request for the court to call the relevant authorities (in) for questioning,' said Nadthasiri Bergman, adding that she was awaiting the court's decision.
Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun has barricaded herself in a hotel room (pictured) at a Thai airport, using tables, chairs and mattresses in a bid to avoid deportation
In a sign of growing desperation during the night, Rahaf posted video of her barricading her hotel room door with furniture. If sent back, she said she will likely be imprisoned, and is 'sure 100 percent' her family will kill her, she said
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, has been at Bangkok airport since Saturday when she was denied entry by Thai immigration officials, who deny her accusations that she was detained at the behest of the Saudi government
Rahaf Mohammed al Qunun, 18, sent this selfie to MailOnline from the Bangkok airport hotel room in which she is being held. She believes she will be murdered by her family if she is deported
Rahaf said she was fleeing her 'abusive' family while travelling in Kuwait, and had flown to Thailand in the hopes of reaching Australia to seek asylum. But she was stopped when she was deplaned in Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport by Kuwaiti and Saudi embassy officials, she said, and has since been held in an airport hotel awaiting deportation.
She said a Saudi official in the Thai airport confiscated her passport after her father reported her for travelling without her male 'guardian'. He claimed she was mentally ill but failed to provide any evidence.
Last night, speaking from an airport hotel room guarded by security officials, she told MailOnline: 'I am scared.
'My brother told me that he's waiting with some Saudi men. They will take me to Saudi Arabia and my father will kill me, because he is so angry. He will kill me. My family do this. I know them.
'They kept telling me they will kill me if I do something wrong - they say that since I was a child.'
She, her parents, and her six siblings live in Ha'il in Saudi Arabia, where her father works as a government official. She says she has suffered beatings and emotional abuse from her family, at one point being locked in her room for six months for cutting her hair.
When they took a trip to visit family in Kuwait she made her escape, buying flights from Kuwait to Thailand and from Thailand to Australia with help from a friend, and taking a taxi to the airport at 4am after checking her father was asleep.
She said: 'When I came to Thailand someone told me that he will help me to get a visa for Thailand in the airport. After that he took my passport. After one hour he came back with five or six people, I think they were police or something and then they told me my father is so angry and I must go back to Saudi Arabia. They know I ran away from him.'
In a text conversion on the messaging app Whatsapp, her father told an airport employee official Rahaf was mentally ill, but when challenged to provide evidence or documentation, he fell silent.
Rahaf demanded her passport back and asked to be allowed to fly to a another country, but officials insisted she would be deported.
She said: 'They kept telling me I can't get a visa. The airline told me I have to stay here so I can go back to Kuwait. From Kuwait they [my family] will take me to Saudi Arabia.
'They will kill me. I am so scared. I want to go to another country, and stay safe. I have a visa for Australia, I want to go there. I don't know what I will do.
'I have to fight, because I don't want to lose my life.'
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun, 18, had earlier tweeted: 'I have been detained in an airport hotel. I will be forcibly repatriated tomorrow to Kuwait and then Saudi. There is an airport person who constantly follows me. I can't even ask for protection or asylum in Thailand.'
Human Rights Watch has called on the Thai government to grant sanctuary to Rahaf, who they believe may be at 'serious risk of harm' if returned to her family.
The charity said no visa was necessary because Rahaf had not applied to enter Thailand because her passport was taken, along with her plane ticket to Australia - and that Thai authorities have prevented her from having access to UNHCR to make a refugee claim.
Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson told MailOnline: 'As far as we can tell, her father is a prominent government official, I expect he's going to be very very harsh.
'Certainly he's senior enough to do whatever he wants to his daughter and nobody is going to raise a finger against him.
'There's a long history of what they call 'honour violence'.
'I think she's at serious risk. We've been pressing the UN to get in there. They need to go to the airport.
Since her Kafkaesque imprisonment began, Rahaf has shared via Twitter her reasons for fleeing her family and the threatening behaviour of Saudi officials in Bangkok airport.
She said: 'My family is strict and locked me in a room for six months just for cutting my hair,' she said, adding that she is certain she will be imprisoned if she is sent back.
'I'm sure 100 percent they will kill me as soon as I get out of the Saudi jail,' she said, adding that she was 'scared' and 'losing hope'.
In another tweet she said: 'I have been threatened by several staff from the Saudi embassy and the Kuwaiti airlines, and they said 'If you run, we will find you and kidnap you, then deal with you' I really don't know how they are going to behave in case I run.'
In another tweet, with an accompanying video, she said: 'There is an airport person who constantly follows me. I can't even ask for protection or asylum in Thailand. Thai police refuse to help me.'
She also shared a picture of her passport 'because I want you to know I'm real and exist'.
Another tweet read: 'I'm afraid my family will kill me.'
By 2.30pm GMT, Rahaf was in a hotel on the airport grounds with multiple security and immigration officials preventing her from leaving the building.
At 4.30pm she tried to plead with the President of the United States directly, tweeting: '@realDonaldTrump please help me. I'm hoping that you heard about me. I'm Saudi girl who fled from her family. Now I could be killed if they drag me back to my male guardian.'
President Trump considers the kingdom's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a close ally, and has rejected the findings of his own intelligence agencies which linked 'MBS', as he is known, to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In a video, Rahaf is shown detained in an airport hotel in Bangkok with security officials preventing her from leaving the building
Thai officials claim it is a family matter and say she will be deported to Saudi - where renouncing Islam is punishable by death, and activists say women are at risk of 'honour killings' by family members.
It is a chilling echo of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, a Saudi woman who in April 2017 was held for 13 hours in Manilla airport while trying to flee a forced marriage. She was forcibly taken back to Saudi Arabia by uncles and never heard from again.
A Thai official confirmed yesterday that an 18-year-old Saudi woman seeking asylum was denied entry to Thailand and held in Bangkok's airport.
Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn told AFP: 'Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun ran away from her family to avoid marriage and she is concerned she may be in trouble returning to Saudi Arabia'.
He said: 'She had no further documents such as return ticket or money.
He added that Thai authorities contacted the 'Saudi Arabia embassy to coordinate'.
Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn had earlier said Rahaf would be sent back to Saudi Arabia by Monday morning, adding, 'It's a family problem'.
The young Saudi woman's case is reminiscent of a 2017 incident in which a 24-year-old woman fleeing a forced marriage was held at Manilla airport for 13 hours before being repatriated against her will. Dina Ali Lasloom was not heard from again after returning to Saudi Arabia in the company of her uncles
But Rahaf and Human Rights Watch said in fact she was stopped by Saudi and Kuwaiti officials when she arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport and her passport was forcibly taken from her after a a male guardian had reported her for traveling 'without his permission'.
Rahaf said she was trying to flee her family, who subjected her to physical and psychological abuse.
She took to Twitter to plead her case, creating a profile with an Arabic bio that reads 'I just want to survive'.
During a video livestream showing her walking around a carpeted hallway, Rahaf spoke in Arabic about how her father had told Saudi embassy officials she was a 'psychiatric patient' who had to be returned, even though she had 'an Australian visa'.
'I can't escape the airport,' she said in the live video. 'I tried but there's a security (official) watching me.'
Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson told MailOnline: 'Rahaf faces being sent back to face honor related violence from her family, and openly says that her father will kill her.'
Rahaf shared this copy of her passport saying on Twitter, 'I'm sharing it with you now because I want you to know I'm real and exist'
Yesterday, Rahaf told the BBC that she had renounced Islam, and feared she would be forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia and killed by her family.
Thai police Major General Surachate Hakparn told the BBC that Ms Mohammed al-Qunun was escaping a marriage but because she did not have a visa to enter Thailand, police had denied her entry and were in the process of repatriating her through the same airline she had taken, Kuwait Airlines.
Gen Surachate said he was unaware of any passport seizure and it is unclear why Ms Mohammed al-Qunun would need a Thai visa if she was in transit to Australia and had an Australian visa.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun's tweets are being translated and shared online. She says she is in real danger if she is forced to return to Saudi Arabia
In a series of tweets Ms Mohammed al-Qunun described being detained by police at Suvarnabhumi Airport (pictured) and says she fears for her life
It's happened before: Saudi woman fleeing forced marriage disappeared in 2017
In April 2017, Saudi woman Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, attampted to flee to Australia.
She posted videos on Twitter saying she was trying to escape a forced marriage and feared violence and even death at the hands of her family if she was returned to the kingdom.
Rahaf's situation is reminiscent of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, pictured
She said: 'My name is Dina Ali and I'm a Saudi woman who fled Saudi Arabia to Australia to seek asylum.
'Please help me. I'm recording this video to help me and know that I'm real and I'm here.
'If my family come, they will kill me.'
Ms Lasloom's passport was confiscated by authorities in the Philippines at Manilla airport, and she was held for 13 hours.
Her case received publicity via help from a Canadian tourist, but she was nonetheless reportedly duct-taped before being being forced on a flight back to Riyadh by uncles.
She has not been heard from since.
Online, Arabic speakers, human rights activists and journalists have attempted to bring a media spotlight to the case on Twitter using the hashtag #SaveRahaf.
Her story has all the hallmarks of the case of Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, a Saudi woman who hoped to find sanctuary in Australia from a forced marriage.
In April 2017 she was detained in Manilla airport by authorities in the Phillipines, taken back to Saudi Arabia by her uncles and never heard from again.
She used a Canadian tourist's phone to send a message, a video of which was posted to Twitter, saying her family would kill her.
The Saudi embassy in Thailand and officials in Riyadh could not be reached for comment.
The ultra-conservative Middle Eastern kingdom has long been criticised for imposing some of the world's toughest restrictions on women.
That includes a guardianship system that allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives.
If punished for 'moral' crimes, they could become victims of further violence in 'honour killings' at the hands of their families, activists say.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations' refugee agency, the UNHCR, told MailOnline: 'For reasons of confidentiality and protection, we are not in a position to comment on the details (or even confirm or deny the existence) of individual cases.
'However, UNHCR consistently advocates that refugees and asylum seekers – having been confirmed or claimed to be in need of international protection – cannot be returned to their countries of origin according to the principle of non-refoulement, which prevents states from expelling or returning persons to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened.
'This principle is recognized as customary international law, and is also enshrined in Thailand's other treaty obligations.'
A spokeswoman for Amenesty International said the charity was 'not involved' in the case.
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News Pictures Saudi woman, 18, barricades herself inside Thai hotel room to avoid being returned to family
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