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The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

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.