A Saudi Arabian woman appears to have been kidnapped from Australia and taken to the Gulf country, her lawyer told AFP. He said he feared his client had been detained.
Lolita Seferaldine arrived in Australia in 2022 and stopped responding to messages while in Melbourne in May 2023, her human rights lawyer Alison Battison said.
Battison said he initially hoped his client was hiding somewhere else in Australia.
But a year later, she was told Safiraldin had returned to Saudi Arabia, sparking concerns her client had been removed from Australia against her will.
“I’m absolutely certain Lolita will never willingly go back to Saudi Arabia,” Battison told AFP in Sydney.
“I’m just happy that it looks like she’s alive, and for a long time I thought she might be dead.”
Battison said a family member confirmed Safiraldin was alive in Saudi Arabia, possibly in a detention center.
The Saudi Arabian embassy has been asked to comment on the allegations.
According to The Australian newspaper, Seferaldin — who was married at the age of 11 and gave birth to her first child at 13 — fled sexual and physical abuse in her home country and was seeking asylum in Australia.
Battison said that the night Seferaldin disappeared, a friend of hers, who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, received a “very frightening” call pleading for help because some people were forcing her to leave.
‘too concerned’
The lawyer said that the woman’s friend reached her house, but several people standing outside in a black Mercedes van stopped him from meeting the woman.
Neither Friend nor Battison received any news from Sferaldine again.
From a young age Safiraldin was reportedly forced to assume the identity of his deceased half-sister Hanan, who was reportedly nine years older than him.
Battison said flight records showed the woman, Hanan Seferaldine, flew home from Melbourne a few days after the incident.
But the airport’s CCTV is no longer available, and she doesn’t know who else was on the plane.
“I’m extremely concerned for Lolita’s safety,” Battison said.
The Australian government has not yet publicly confirmed the details of the incident or the identity of the woman.
Australian Federal Police said they were aware of the allegations and had begun investigations in Australia and overseas, extending to June 2024. They declined to comment further.
The Home Ministry said it would not comment on any specific case but was “actively investigating various cases of foreign interference.”
Saudi Arabia has long had practices that repress women, such as a ban on driving and the requirement to wear the abaya.
Although some restrictions have been lifted, human rights activists say the Personal Status Law, due to come into force in 2022, still discriminates against women when it comes to marriage, divorce and raising children.
‘Forgotten and forsaken’
“We have seen cases where women have been forcibly deported, and family members or people connected to those family members have forced them to go back to Saudi Arabia,” Daniela Gavshon, director of Human Rights Watch Australia, told AFP.
Gavshon cited two cases of women being stopped while fleeing Saudi Arabia to Australia in 2017 and 2019.
But he said no kidnappings had been confirmed within Australia’s borders.
Battison said he feared such kidnapping cases may not have occurred in the past.
“Every minute that their name is not on the airport’s watch list, or they are not warned about it in some way, is a danger,” he said.
“It was predictable and therefore preventable.”
Since reporting the alleged abduction, Battison has spoken to the media in the hope that Seferaldin’s still-pending visa application will be approved, opening the way to consular assistance and even a possible return to Australia.
“She can actually contact her lawyer and know that she has not been forgotten or abandoned, in a system that promotes gender discrimination.”