The 18-year-old Saudi woman fled her "abusive" family last week while they were on a trip to Kuwait.
Initially she was heading for Australia via Bangkok but she was chased by Saudi officials who seized her passport.
Before she boarded her flight to Toronto, she explained: "(Australia) takes too long. That's why I went to Canada."
Today she received a tremendous welcome as she arrived at Toronto's International Airport smiling in a 'Canada' hoodie.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland hailed her a "brave new Canadian", and said "she wanted Canadians to see that she has arrived at her new home".
Rahaf grabbed international attention after she barricaded herself in a Bangkok hotel room, resisting to be sent home to her family.
She soon started posting messages on Twitter from the transit area of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport saying she had "escaped Kuwait" and her life would be in danger if forced to return to Saudi Arabia.
Her passport was taken after a relative is said to have reported her for travelling without the company of a male guardian.
She added: "I have been threatened by several staff from the Saudi embassy and the Kuwaiti airlines, and they said, 'If you run, we will find you and kidnap you, then deal with you'.
"I really don't know how they are going to behave in case I run."
Rahaf also shared a tweet that she claimed was from her cousin in which she is threatened with being "slaughtered".
Her father, a government official, contacted Saudi officials in Thailand asking for their "help" in getting her back – but Rahaf claims he told them she was mentally ill.
Thailand officials said she will today be deported to Saudi Arabia – where renouncing Islam is punishable by death.
Thailand's immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said: "Rahaf Mohammed M Alqunun ran away from her family to avoid marriage and she is concerned she may be in trouble returning to Saudi Arabia," before adding, "It's a family problem".
Gen Surachate told the BBC he was unaware of any passport seizure.
Rahaf has denied that she ran away from home to avoid getting married – and claimed she was tricked into handing over her passport by airport security working on behalf of the Saudis.
Thai immigration authorities denied Rahaf's allegations they were acting at the behest of the Saudi government.
Officials said she was refused entry to Thailand on Saturday night because she did not have the proper documents for a visa on arrival.
Rahaf said she had obtained an Australian visa and booked a flight.
She said she planned to spend a few days in Thailand, a popular destination for medical treatment, so she would not spark suspicion when she left Kuwait.
She said: "When I landed at the airport, someone came and said he would process the (Thai) visa but he took my passport.
"He came back with what seemed to be airport security and said that my parents objected and said I must return to Saudi Arabia via Kuwait Airways."
Rahaf added she believed she was stopped after her family appealed to Kuwait Airways.
A spokesman for Kuwait Airways said he had no information about the case.
Rahaf's situation has chilling echoes of Princess Latifa of Dubai's ordeal which saw the Gulf state royal who vanished in mysterious circumstances in March amid reports that she was seized by commandos as she crossed the Indian Ocean on a yacht.
She was said to have fled the emirate on a boat skippered by a former French intelligence officer named Hervé Jaubert.
Source: Read Full Article