Hong Kong on Friday deported 33 Taiwanese for planning to take part in a demonstration today over proposed amendments to the territory’s extradition laws, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday.
The deportees are Falung Gong members who were detained at Hong Kong International Airport upon entry and sent back to Taiwan in separate groups, sources said.
The council in a statement expressed regret that Hong Kong would turn away Taiwanese with valid travel documents.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
“The freedoms of speech and religion are fundamental human rights that should be understood by Hong Kong authorities with rationality and respect,” the council said.
Taiwan’s representative office in Hong Kong said that it did not receive requests from the Taiwanese travelers prior to their attempted entry and that it has reached out to the airline to understand what had transpired.
The Hong Kong Legislative Council on Wednesday last week initiated deliberations on the controversial amendments, which critics have said could broaden Beijing’s power to extradite dissidents from the territory.
Opponents of the proposal are expected to stage a demonstration today to demand that the council retract the bill.
The Hong Kong government as of press time last night had no comment regarding the deportations.
The incident has deepened fears that Hong Kong has established a blacklist to bar people whose opinions are disagreeable to Beijing from entering the territory.
In a 2008 document, the Hong Kong Security Bureau told the Legislative Council that it had established a system to prevent people who are “detrimental to the public interest of Hong Kong” from entering the territory, but disavowed the existence of a list of persona non grata.
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