Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia granted ‘new home’

TBILISI: Two Saudi sisters who fled to Georgia saying they feared being killed if they returned home posted on social media on Tuesday that they have now obtained Georgian passports and are moving to a third country.

The women, who identified themselves as 28-year-old Maha Alsubaie and 25-year-old Wafa Alsubaie, wrote on Twitter account @GeorgiaSisters2, "we are on our way to start a new life in a new country".

The sisters, who appealed for help via social media last month, are the latest to flee the Islamic kingdom where they say they feared for their lives. "Finally we are going to another country, We have a new home, we have to start our new life," said Wafa in a video that shows the pair at Tbilisi airport.

They wave Georgian passports and smile broadly in the video, while saying on Twitter that they would not give details of where they are moving to "for a little while". The Georgian interior ministry told AFP they could not comment on whether the women had left the country because information about asylum seekers is confidential.

The ministry however confirmed the women were safe as did a Georgian rights NGO that has worked with the women, Article 42 of the Constitution. Last month, the women pleaded for international protection saying they were "trapped in Georgia" after Saudi authorities cancelled their passports.

"If we go back to Saudi we will be killed", they said. Georgian authorities gave them shelter but the women said they did not feel safe to remain in the country because their father and brothers were searching for them there.

More than 40,000 people signed a Change.org petition by the women asking for UN help to gain asylum in a "safe third country". Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most restrictive countries for women.

In a similar case in March, another two Saudi sisters aged 20 and 18 who were marooned in Hong Kong reached a third country after securing humanitarian visas as they sought sanctuary from an abusive family. In early 2019, 18-year-old Saudi Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun drew global attention with her dramatic escape from an allegedly abusive family, gaining refugee status in Canada.