Rahaf al-Qunun: Saudi teen granted asylum in Canada

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) — Canada will grant asylum to an 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled to Thailand to escape her allegedly abusive family, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.

Rahaf Al-Qunun will head to Toronto, with a stopover in Seoul, said Thailand's Immigration Police Chief Surachate Hakparn. She boarded a Korean Airlines plane in Bangkok.

Trudeau told reporters in Saskatchewan that his nation accepted the request made by United Nations officials.

The news followed confusion earlier in the day over where the teenager would be resettled.

-snip-

By Kocha Olarn and Helen Regan, CNN
Updated 1850 GMT (0250 HKT) January 11, 2019


Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/11/asia/saudi-teen-australia-asylum-intl/index.html

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Update: Saudi teen who fled family has left Thailand for Canada (Reuters)

[uppityperson]

1. K&R. Great news, thank you Canada

[George II]

2. Very good news, thanks! Hey Canada, let's make a deal....

You give us Justin Trudeau and we'll give you donny sr., Donny Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and we'll even throw in Melania and Kim Gargoyle.

We get one, you get six. Deal?

[PoliticAverse]

3. Good. n/t

[Seedersandleechers]

4. Wish we could all get Canadian asylum

Funny though - my mother was an illegal immigrant from Montreal.

[mastermind]

5. Thank you Canada! nt

[Marcuse]

6. Canada vs Saudi Arabia. Whose side will we be on?

[link:https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/saudi-arabias-crown-prince-picks-a-very-strange-fight-with-canada|

The Canadian Foreign Ministry followed up with a tweet that called for the release of “all peaceful #humanrights activists” held by the Gulf monarchy. The Canadian Embassy in Riyadh then tweeted the message in Arabic.

The desert kingdom erupted in fury. Over the weekend, it expelled the Canadian Ambassador, recalled its own envoy, froze all new trade and investment, suspended flights by the state airline to Toronto, and ordered thousands of Saudi students to leave Canada and get their education in other countries. Its Foreign Ministry counter-tweeted, “The Canadian position is an overt and blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of #SaudiArabia and is in contravention of the most basic international norms and all the charters governing relations between States.” Further, it issued a warning: “Any further step from the Canadian side in that direction will be considered as acknowledgment of our right to interfere in the Canadian domestic affairs.”