Saudi Sisters Thank International Community

The two Saudi sisters, who are currently in Hong Kong seeking asylum in a third country, have thanked the international community for its support and asked people to keep helping them until they can find, what they describe as, a safe new home.

Writing on Twitter on Thursday evening, they said they hoped this would happen very soon and that the Hong Kong government would allow them to stay until then.

The sisters, aged 18 and 20, have been in Hong Kong for almost six months, as tolerated over-stayers. It is understood the government's deadline passed at midnight and now they could technically be deported.

Earlier Human rights group, Amnesty International, also appealed to the government for them to be allowed to stay.

Amnesty said the sisters, known as Reem and Rawan, fled in September, after suffering repeated beatings by male family members and being treated like slaves.

Amnesty said they must not be returned to Saudi Arabia as their lives would be in grave danger. Earlier reports said they had rejected Islam, which carries the death penalty in the conservative kingdom.

The case emerged a month after 18-year-old Saudi woman Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun drew global attention with her dramatic escape from an allegedly abusive family, gaining refugee status in Canada two months ago