Calls are growing for the Australian government to intervene in the case of a young Saudi woman who has been barricaded in a hotel in Thailand after she was detained while travelling to seek asylum in Australia.

Rahaf Mohammed Mutlaq al-Qunun, 18, claims she was abducted on Sunday and had her passport confiscated by Saudi Arabian diplomatic staff on arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.

Qunun has barricaded herself in her hotel room in fear that Thai immigration officials, who have congregated outside her hotel room door, would force her on to a plane to leave the country.

On Monday a friend, who had taken over Qunun’s Twitter account at her request, said officials from Kuwait Airways had come to her door but she refused to leave. A flight scheduled for 11.15am, local time, departed without her.

Thai lawyers had filed an injunction with the Bangkok criminal court to prevent her deportation, Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s Asia deputy director, said late on Monday.

The Guardian has confirmed Qunun had a three-month multiple-entry tourist visa for Australia, where she said she was intending to seek asylum, apparently contradicting reported statements by Thai authorities that she did not have the required documents to travel to Australia from Bangkok.

Qunun maintains she will be killed if she is made to return to Saudi Arabia and has said she will not leave until she can see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Robertson said.

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said she was concerned by the reports over the situation and had sought further information from the government.

“It is a very distressing position she is in,” Wong said.

Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens senator from South Australia, called on Australia to act quickly to issue her with emergency travel documents.

In a tweet she said: “Australia needs to help this young woman urgently! Her life is in danger after denouncing Islam & fleeing forced marriage. We can issue her w emergency travel docs so she can board flight to Australia & seek safety. I’ve called on the Govt to act quickly!”

Alex Turnbull, the former prime minister’s son, also weighed in with a call for Scott Morrison to intervene.

The real question on @rahaf84427714 - is the Australian government going to cower before bone saw wielding murderers or is it going to offer asylum to those who genuinely need it? #auspol Man up @ScottMorrisonMP — Alex Turnbull (@alexbhturnbull) January 7, 2019

Saudi Arabian authorities have denied their involvement, saying Thai officials stopped Qunun because she did not have a return ticket or an itinerary to show she was a tourist.

“She will be deported to the state of Kuwait where her family live,” the Saudi embassy said in a statement. “The embassy does not have the authority to stop her at the airport or anywhere else.”

Robertson said the organisation was trying to lodge an asylum claim with the UNHCR.

He also questioned a statement by Thailand’s immigration chief to the BBC that Qunun did not have a travel visa, which prevented her entering the country.

Saudi women are subject to strict male guardianship laws and must obtain consent from a male relative for travel documents.

Qunun told a Thai human rights worker her family kept her in her room for six months because she cut her hair. She had asserted her independence and renounced Islam but had been forced to pray, wear a hijab and was beaten by her brother.

Qunun is understood to have fled from her family two days ago. She has appealed for help from Australia, Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, Sweden and other European nations.

The offices of the foreign minister, home affairs minister and immigration minister did not respond to requests for comment.

• Australian Associated Press contributed to this report