Ms Qunun said she had been abused by her family and would be killed if she was returned home. A Thai friend who is with Ms Qunun at the hotel said Thai immigration officers came to her room late on Sunday afternoon and told her she would be sent back to Saudi Arabia on Monday. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "They said, 'You have three minutes to pack, and you will be flown back to Kuwait tomorrow at 11.15am, then returned to Saudi Arabia'," the friend said. However, the teenager spoke to the officers and later returned to the hotel.

A Thai human rights worker who spoke to Ms Qunun said she told him she had been held in her room by her family for six months because she had cut her hair. Ms Qunun said she had asserted her independence, but had been forced to pray and wear a hijab. She also claimed to have been beaten by her brother. She fled from her family two days ago while they were on a trip to Kuwait. "I’m afraid, my family WILL kill me," she said on Twitter, where she shared her photograph, passport details and name, saying she had "nothing to lose". "My life is in real danger if I am forced to return to Saudi Arabia."

Human Rights Watch Asia division deputy director Phil Robertson said he was "extremely worried" the young woman would face a violent fate in Saudi Arabia if she was returned to her home country. He said the organisation was trying to lodge an asylum claim with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He questioned a statement by Thailand's immigration chief to the BBC that Ms Qunun did not have a travel visa, which prevented her from entering Thailand. Mr Robertson said Ms Qunun was in transit to Australia when she was detained and did not need a visa, which is available on arrival anyway.

"What is truly appalling is how the Saudi Arabian government has acted in sending an official to physically seize her passport from her in Bangkok airport international transit," he said. "She is 18-years-old, she has an Australian visa, and she has the right to travel where she wishes and no government should interfere in that." Mr Robertson said the Thai government "needs to explain why diplomats from Saudi Arabia are allowed to walk in closed areas of the Bangkok airport, seizing one of their citizen's passports". He compared her case to that of Dina Ali Lasloom, who was detained by Saudi officials in Manila when she tried to seek asylum in Australia in April last year. She was returned to her country and there is no knowledge of her whereabouts. The case follows the major international backlash against the Saudi regime over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. The Saudi government lied about his murder inside their consulate in Istanbul, but after international pressure admitted he was assassinated by what they claimed was a rogue operation. However, the CIA has concluded it was a planned assassination ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.