Another Fleeing Woman Returned to Saudi Arabia Against Her Will

This is not the girl who fled to Bangkok, but another young woman

 who, though 24, was violently repatriated in 2017

No-one has heard from her since

A photo of Dina Ali Lasloom’s boarding pass from Kuwait to the Philippines.  Twitter.

(Manila) – A fleeing Saudi woman faces grave risks after being returned to Saudi Arabia against her will while in transit in the Philippines, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi authorities should ensure that Dina Ali Lasloom, 24, is not subjected to violence from her family or prosecution by Saudi authorities for trying to flee, Human Rights Watch said.

On April 10, 2017, Saudi activists posted videos that appeared to show Lasloom at Manila’s international airport pleading not to be returned because she feared her family would kill her. 

The Saudi embassy in the Philippines issued a statement on April 12 saying that Lasloom’s return was a “family matter.”

Sound familiar?

“Saudi women fleeing their family or the country can face so-called ‘honor’ violence or other serious harm if returned against their will,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi authorities should immediately protect this woman from her family to ensure she’s not subjected to violence and should not punish her for fleeing.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed four people linked to Lasloom’s case, including two who said that they spoke to her at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

A Canadian woman, Meagan Khan, transiting through Manila on April 10, told Human Rights Watch that Lasloom approached her at 11 a.m. to ask if she could borrow her cell phone. She said that Lasloom identified herself as a Saudi woman living in Kuwait who intended to flee to Australia to escape a forced marriage and that airport officials had confiscated her passport and boarding pass for a scheduled 11:15 a.m. flight to Sydney.

Khan said she then assisted Lasloom in filming several short videos explaining her case, which were later circulated on social media networks. One video shows Lasloom saying: “They took my passport and locked me up for 13 hours … if my family comes they will kill me. If I go back to Saudi Arabia I will be dead. Please help me.” Khan said several hours later, two men Lasloom identified as her uncles arrived at the airport. After sitting with her for eight hours, Khan then left for her connecting flight.

Philippine immigration officials denied holding Lasloom in immigration detention, according to local media outlets. An airline security official, who requested not to be identified, told Human Rights Watch that he met Lasloom at about 12:30 p.m. on April 11 in the lobby of a small temporary lodging facility in Terminal One. He said that Lasloom told him that she feared going back to Saudi Arabia with her uncles and that he saw bruises on her arms that she said were the result of a beating by her uncles.

Screaming, duct taped

The security official said that at 5:15 p.m., while he was in the hotel lobby, he saw two airline security officials and three apparently Middle Eastern men enter the hotel and go to her room, which he said was near the lobby. He said he heard her screaming and begging for help from her room, after which he saw them carry her out with duct tape on her mouth, feet, and hands. He said she was still struggling to break free when he saw them put her in a wheelchair and take her out of the hotel.

A Saudi source sent Human Rights Watch photos obtained via a contact who works at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that show flight information that includes details of Lasloom, along with her two uncles, as passengers on Saudia Airlines flight SV871, which departed Manila at 7:01 p.m. on April 11 and arrived in Riyadh at midnight local time.

Reuters reported that several passengers said they had seen a woman being carried onto the plane screaming. One woman told Reuters, “I heard a lady screaming from upstairs. Then I saw two or three men carrying her. They weren’t Filipino. They looked Arab.” Two people who went to Riyadh airport at midnight to seek information about Lasloom told Human Rights Watch that she did not emerge from the flight with the rest of the passengers. Reuters also reported that a Saudi activist who went to the airport to meet Lasloom appeared to have been detained after approaching security officials to inquire about the case.

The role Philippine authorities played in Lasloom’s return is unclear. As a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture, the Philippines has an obligation not to return anyone to a territory where they face persecution because of their gender or a real risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

“The Philippine government should fully investigate this incident and hold any of their officials who failed to protect Dina Ali Lasloom accountable, as required by international law,” Whitson said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte began a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia on April 10, the same day Lasloom attempted to fly to Australia.

Lasloom’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

The Saudi authorities should disclose whether Lasloom is with her family or held by the state, Human Rights Watch said. If held by the state, the authorities should disclose under what conditions she is being held, including whether she is at a shelter at her request and whether she has freedom of movement and ability to contact the outside world. State shelter facilities in Saudi Arabia are used both to detain women and to provide protection for those fleeing abuse, and may require a male relative to agree to their release. Lasloom is at serious risk of harm if returned to her family. She also faces possible criminal charges, in violation of her basic rights, for “parental disobedience,” which can result in punishments ranging from being returned to a guardian’s home to imprisonment, and for “harming the reputation of the kingdom” for her public cries for help.

Women - Permanent legal minors

Human Rights Watch has documented how under Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system, adult women must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel abroad, marry, or be released from prison, and may be required to provide guardian consent to work or get health care. These restrictions last from birth until death, as women are, in the view of the Saudi state, permanent legal minors.

“Saudi women face systematic discrimination every day, and Lasloom’s case shows that fleeing abroad may not protect them from abuses,” Whitson said.

CDC Official Who Handled Zika and Ebola Outbreaks Mysteriously Missing

© Tami Chappell / Reuters

A respected Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official who worked on the Ebola and Zika outbreaks has disappeared without a trace. He was last seen leaving work midway through the day, saying he was feeling ill.

The Harvard-educated epidemiologist and US Navy officer Timothy J. Cunningham, 35, has been missing since February 12, when he left work after saying he was feeling unwell.

His parents became concerned when he wouldn’t answer any texts or calls. They drove all the way from Maryland to Atlanta, Georgia, after some relatives went by and saw his house was empty and two windows were open. Inside the house, they found Cunningham’s phone, wallet and driver's license. His car was still parked in the garage and his dog, Mr. Bojangles, aka Beau, was left on his own.

“Tim never leaves Beau unattended,” the missing man’s father, Terrell Cunningham told NBC News. "He just doesn't do it.”

“None of this makes sense,” Timothy’s brother Anterio told WAGA-TV, a Fox affiliate in Atlanta. “He wouldn't just evaporate like this and leave his dog alone and have our mother wondering and worrying like this. He wouldn't.”

“I feel like I’m in a horrible Black Mirror episode,” his sister Tiara told the New York Times.

With two degrees from Harvard, Cunningham worked on the government’s response to the Zika and Ebola crises. He had recently been promoted to the rank of commander, and was one of The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s ‘40 Under 40 Award’ winners. But family members said in recent calls and texts that Cunningham seemed to not be himself.

Family, friends, and Timothy’s college alumni are all taking part in the search, and have raised more than $20,000 as a reward for any information, a sign of the high regard in which Cunningham was held. His family hopes that someone may recognize him somewhere, perhaps as a patient at a hospital.

Over 8,000 Migrants ‘Disappeared’ Off Swiss Radar in 2016

Migrants in a Swiss Federal refugee center set-up in a tank hall on the army base in Thun, Switzerland   © Ruben Sprich / Reuters

Switzerland has witnessed a 40 percent increase in asylum seekers who dropped off the radar after arriving in the country. Over 8,000 migrants simply disappeared in 2016 after abandoning the asylum procedures without informing Swiss authorities.

Between January and the end of November 2016, a total of 8,166 asylum seekers chose to abandon their refugee applications, Martin Reichlin, a spokesman for the Migration Ministry (SEM) revealed.

At first glance this may appear to be a bad thing, but it seems likely that the vast majority who disappeared were not jihadists going underground as some might worry. Even jihadists need money to live on so unless they brought a bunch with them, and considering their countries of origin that is very unlikely, they are more liable to stay registered. 

This report does not make clear how many of these people disappeared before European borders tightened-up in mid-summer. Switzerland reported 14,000 people attempting to enter the country in 2016 before the borders with Italy and Germany tightened. I think it safe to say considerably fewer entered Switzerland since then. That means 8,000 asylum seekers who abandoned their application might well account for 40 to 50% of all migrants entering the country.

I'm unable to verify the numbers above. 14,000 for more than half of 2016 is a huge drop from the 163,000 taken in in 2015, or the 81,000 in 2014. 

USA Today - From May through Sept. 9, Switzerland accepted 72 refugees from Italy, with the government planning to take in a total of 600 from Italy by the end of the year, the migration agency said.

In all of 2015, Switzerland granted 6,377 asylum requests, mostly from refugees from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria, according to the agency. And in the first six months of this year, 3,252 were accepted, giving Switzerland one of the highest per capita rates in Europe for accepting refugees, according to the EU.

Those who dropped out of the bureaucratic process include people who believed that their application would be rejected or those who wished to join relatives in another European country. The SEM believes that these missing migrants continued their journey towards Germany.

According to the spokesman, those who chose to surrender their refugee prospects in Switzerland mainly came from Africa with the majority coming from Eritrea (801), Gambia (792), and Nigeria (716). They are followed by nationals of Guinea (508), Algeria (504) and Somalia (494).

The 2016 statistics show a massive increase in numbers of those who decided not to stay in Switzerland. In 2015 only 4,943 asylum seekers ‘went missing’.

Under European rules, refugees are only allowed to enter Switzerland if they say they want to claim asylum here. All those who do are assigned to a SEM reception center to be registered. Anyone who does not state their intention to claim asylum in Switzerland is refused entry and must return to the first European country they entered.

Answered Prayer, Angels, Miracles - ABC's Dianne Sawyer

The following video from ABC News' Dianne Sawyer begs the questions, 'are there angels among us'? Does prayer really work?

Decide for yourself...

Katie's miracle.

Snopes: No Angel! Priest found.

Origins:   On the morning of 11 August 2013, the vehicle bearing 19-year-old Katie Lentz of New London, Missouri, collided with another, crushing the young woman's car and trapping her inside the upturned wreckage. When it proved impossible to extricate the injured teen while the car was in that position, the decision was made to flip the vehicle back onto its tires, although such movement could dramatically change the pressure on her body and put her further at risk. 

Lentz called for someone to pray for her first. Seemingly out of nowhere, a priest no one at the accident scene recognized appeared and began ministering to the stricken girl. Those struggling to free the girl said the mysterious priest told them to be calm and their tools would now work. 

After praying with her, absolving her of her sins and anointing her, the priest slipped away unnoticed. Lentz was subsequently freed from what little remained of her car and transported by helicopter to the nearest trauma center. 

Photographs taken at the scene that morning failed to display the mysterious priest — in none of the nearly 70 of them did the man appear. Moreover, no one present had recognized him, which was highly unusual given that there was only one Catholic church within three towns, and the unknown man was not its pastor. 

It appeared a grievously injured teen's pleas for spiritual succor had been answered by an angel guised as a priest. 

The mystery was resolved within a few days. The mysterious stranger was in fact a Catholic priest, the Rev. Patrick Dowling. A priest since 1982, Dowling works in prison ministry and with Spanish-speaking parishioners, which accounts for no one present at the accident scene having recognized him. As to how he came to be there, he was returning from Ewing, Missouri, where he had celebrated Mass at a local church because that parish's regular priest had been ill. That no one saw him come or go was likely explained by his having parked his car behind a large vehicle about 150 yards from where Katie Lentz lay trapped. 

Charges are pending against the driver of the other vehicle, and Katie Lentz is on the mend despite suffering two broken femurs, a broken tibia and fibula, broken left wrist, nine broken ribs, a lacerated liver, ruptured spleen and bruised lung.