Vietnamese woman jailed in Hong Kong after losing passport to pickpocket
HONG KONG - A Vietnamese tourist lost her passport to a pickpocket,
but after she reported it and was waiting for a new one, Hong Kong
authorities arrested her and jailed her for three weeks, a human rights
group said Monday.
Nguyen Thi Yen Loan, 28, who runs a hair salon in Ho Chi Minh City,
alleges she was beaten with a file during an interrogation but warned by an
interpreter not to complain, the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor said in
the latest case raising questions about immigration procedures here.
"This lady has been unjustly detained for such a lengthy period," said Law
Yuk-kai, director of the human rights group that intervened to help get
Nguyen freed.
"If somebody should be responsible, it should be the pickpocket," Law
said. "She's a victim of crime and got jailed by the authorities. It is
unacceptable."
Hong Kong immigration officials and security officials said they were
investigating Monday but had no immediate comment.
"We are still trying to understand the case," said Felix Tsui, a spokesman
for the Immigration Department.
Nguyen arrived in Hong Kong on July 27 on a seven-day visa, intending to
visit friends and to buy some beauty shop supplies she cannot easily obtain
in Vietnam, Law said.
A pickpocket took her passport and money as she walked through an
outdoor market in the Mong Kok neighborhood on July 30, Law said.
Two days later, Nguyen - with the help of Chinese-speaking friends -
reported the crime to Hong Kong police, the Hong Kong Immigration
Department and the Vietnamese consulate, Law said.
Nguyen was advised by immigration officers to make a formal report to
police on the theft of her passport and did so. She also applied for a new
passport from the consulate.
Nguyen got reciepts to show what she had done, and then sought a visa
extention. The immigration officers declined to extend her visa, saying they
could not do so because she had no passport.
On Aug. 8, she was confronted by police demanding her documents. She
showed them her receipts but was arrested.
Authorities used a Vietnamese interpreter to interrogate Nguyen - but Law
said they erroneously translated a written statement she had made in
Vietnamese into an admission of guilt in Chinese - for overstaying her visa.
Nguyen was taken to prison, and her friends tried with no success to get
her out, Law said.
The friends finally contacted Law's group. Law phoned an immigration
case officer on Aug. 30 to ask about the case and Nguyen was released
the next day. She is still waiting for her passport to go home, Law said.
The Vietnamese consulate declined comment Monday.
Nguyen's case is not alone in highlighting concerns about the way Hong
Kong immigration officials process cases.
The territory's ombudsman's office is investigating the plight of a mentally
retarded Hong Kong boy who apparently slipped across the border into
mainland China but was prevented from returning by Hong Kong
authorities who set him loose in the border town of Shenzhen.
Yu Man-hon, who is 15 but reportedly has a mental age of 2, is still
missing after becoming separated from his mother on Aug. 24.
In October, a mainland Chinese teen-ager who lives in New Jersey was
sentenced to four months in jail after falsely pleading guilty to using a fake
passport when a translator allegedly warned she risked execution in in
China if she did not confess.
Lin Qiaoying's passport was genuine, and three immigration officers have
been charged with perverting the course of justice in that case.
About a year ago, a Taiwanese businessman trying to fly home to be with
his ill wife was detained in Hong Kong until after she died because officials
wrongly thought his passport was bogus.
Reuters - September 4, 2000.
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