Two sisters claim asylum after escaping from Saudi Arabia: "We fled the oppression of our family, if we come back, they will kill us"

Two Saudi sisters have requested Georgia's badistance to the international community for get protection after fleeing Saudi Arabia and its very conservative customs. In this country, women are subject to the guardianship of a man who exercises arbitrary authority over them and makes important decisions for them.

In a video posted on the @GeorgiaSisters Twitter account, the two women tell each other "stuck in Georgia" after the Saudi authorities cancel the validity of their pbadports.

The women posted photos of their pbadports identifying them as Maha Alsubaie, 28, and Wafa Alsubaie, 25.

"We are in danger. Please, help us", Maha implores in a video.

"We fled the oppression of our family because the laws in Saudi Arabia are too weak to protect us," he said in another video, Wafa, claiming that his father and his brothers had already arrived in the country to search for them.

"We want to seek asylum in any safe country," they said in a third video where his face was uncovered, saying that "If we go back to Saudi Arabia, they will kill us".

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that it "was carefully monitoring the situation of the sisters".

Georgian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sopho Mdinaradze said representatives of the ministry's migration department "visited the women on Thursday and invited them to initiate an asylum application. ".

"They can feel safe, the protection of their rights is guaranteed in Georgia," said Mdinaradze.

This is not the first time that young Saudis have fled their families and their country. Rahaf Mohammed al Qunun, an 18-year-old girl, was granted asylum in Canada in early 2019 after mediating her flight after being detained for the first time at Bangkok airport.

Two other Saudi sisters, stranded in Hong Kong since September after fleeing their family, left British excolony at the end of March heading to a third country, until then unknown.