Two Saudi female students flee to South Korea

Two university female students from Saudi Arabia fled to South Korea last week.

The father of one of the students said his 20-year-old daughter went to university in the morning as usual but was late to return home.

“We weren’t very worried because she works at a shopping center after university. We assumed that she might have gone to her job. By 11:00 p.m. we became worried,” said the father, who went to her work place but could not find her.

“I reported this to the police. By looking at my Abshir records I found out that my daughter has left the Kingdom for South Korea with a friend. I think my daughter used my phone to log into my Abshir account and issue herself a travel permission,” said the father.

He also said that he was surprised that he did not receive a text message about her travel.

“I did not notice anything strange about my daughter. Lately she has been expressing her love for the Korean culture but it’s something that is quite popular among girls of her age. Her mother is devastated and I am shocked by what my daughter has done,” said the father.

The brother of the second student said that his sister traveled to South Korea with one of her friends.

“Her escape is shocking. Investigations of her escape are ongoing. The bus driver keeps changing his statements. He says that he did drop her off to the university on time but she had already traveled in the time the driver said he dropped her off,” said the brother.

The brother also said there is no way they were able to travel alone.

“They must have arranged with a travel agency. There is no way they arranged everything themselves,” said the brother.

This article was first published by the Saudi Gazette on Sunday, October 9, 2016.