Shard

Pleased that Canada has provided asylum to this brave young woman Ms Rahaf al-Qunun
(unlike the dithering land down under).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46851723

Danny B

Maybe I am being a cynic, but I think Canada called Australia and said "we got this" as a payback for all the Saudi students forced to leave Canada last year. It's a big F U back to the murdering Prince.

Shard

That's certainly the icing on the cake. Anyway, good move all around.

spouse of scouse

Canada was her preferred country.

Shard

She was travelling to Australia to claim asylum prior to being detained in Bangkok.

spouse of scouse

Yes she was. Once that went belly up, she stated Canada as her preferred country of asylum.

Former Lancastrian

And the UNHCR granted her asylum on Wednesday and arrived in Canada on the weekend. Unfortunately others in her situation don't have access to social media or have been in refugee camps for years waiting for the UNHCR to place them in any country.

The cynical side of me says this had nothing to do with Canada wanting a seat back at the UN.

Does she deserve asylum Yes and was Canada her 1st choice No but I guess if offered Canada she wouldn't say No.

Dorothy

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I said the same thing last night when this story was on the local news here in Australia. This young woman took to social media and was not only granted protection by UNHCR but offered asylum in not one but two countries within about 48 hours. There are people living in camps for years with no running water, little food, no access to social media (no mobile phones in the refugee camps) but this one girl is suddenly the darling of the refugee community.

Does that make me a cynic? Perhaps, but maybe it just makes me pragmatic and not gullible enough to fall for the media hype.

Shard

The difference is this is a young person who is under threat from her family. Those families and individuals in the camps are being offered an alternative to returning to where their life would be in danger.

Dorothy

Is there proof she was being threatened by her family? Police reports or hospital records? Threatened with what exactly?

What alternative is there living in a camp? Many of the people in those refugee camps have been there for years with no recognition by UNHCR, no country to go to or go back to. What alternative is there? They don't have access to a mobile phone or a hotel room in Bangkok. They're not pretty 18 year old girls who cry on webcams for media attention.

dbd33

I'm not an expert on refugee camps but it seems a weird claim that there's no access to a mobile phone. When my daughter worked in one in Iraq she said it had been there so long that all the businesses one would expect in a small town were there; hairdressers, night club, pool hall, internet café etc. People either worked in those businesses or commuted out by bus or private car to work in the nearby town. I assume those people have phones, probably PAYGO. When she worked in a camp in the CAR it was claimed to have the best internet access of any camp in Africa (!). That would be no use without web connected devices.

Of course, access isn't everything, a savvy person who looks good will do better in life; internet or no internet but I think you're looking at a far flung camp before it's without phones.

Dorothy

It's good that the one your daughter worked at had those facilities. However I would imagine the camps in places such as along Syrian borders wouldn't be quite so swish.

carcajou

Excellent points raised by Dorothy. As well, as she noted none of us should just be accepting on faith what the media tells us.

I have some questions if my own. Women can't just walk into planes in Saudi Arabia the way they can in Montreal - especially not flights to Bangkok, a city which, in the Gulf Arab mindset, holds the same place as Ibiza or Ft Lauderdale / Panama City at Spring Break. What direct male relative, supposedly white-hot angry with her, gave her the formal permission needed for her to make this trip, and why? There is no way an unattended Saudi teen gets on a flight to Bangkok without that and a lot of people at the airport asking questions.

As well . . . They were angry at her for threatening to convert from Islam . . . yet then allowed her to travel alone to Bangkok, one of the unofficial capitals of the Gulf party circuit?

Doesn't add up. I suspect the Australians did ask these questions, did not receive satisfactory answers, and so "dithered."

Hope it all works out for everyone, whatever happened.

BristolUK

I imagine that sounds more lavish than it is but, yes, it does seem to be the case in some.

CBC radio had a feature on the topic a couple of weeks ago. Internet cafe sounded like a normal facility, but probably not like we see here.

Wiki has a very good page on it along with a few details like most refugees not being in camps and the differences between a refugee camp and a transit camp etc.

DeanN

The family was visiting Kuwait. It was from there that she flew to Bangkok, and may not have needed permission to leave the country nor board the plane as she would have done had she been flying from Riyadh.

A similar route was taken in April 2017 by a different young Saudi woman, Dina Ali Lasloom, who only made it as far as Manila before being sent back to Saudi Arabia. She hasn't been seen or heard from since.