Hong Kong Refuses Entry to German Activist Who Went to China
(Bloomberg) -- A German political activist was denied entry to Hong Kong from mainland China, a rare case where immigration policy appeared more restrictive in the once-freewheeling finance hub than the rest of the country.
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David Missal, a Berlin-based advocate on Hong Kong and Tibetan issues, was traveling from Beijing to the former British colony for a vacation when authorities at the airport stopped him and questioned him for about 13 hours, he said on Monday.
Missal co-founded a nonprofit group advocating for a “free and democratic” Hong Kong and currently works for the Tibet Initiative Deutschland, which campaigns for the self-determination of the Chinese region. Beijing has linked such advocacy to calls for secession.
The refusal came months after Hong Kong blocked a Reporters Without Borders representative from entering to monitor the trial of former media mogul Jimmy Lai, who has been accused of endangering national security. In both cases, authorities didn’t explain their decisions.
The denial of entry to people linked to human rights groups has fueled criticism from Western governments over shrinking freedoms that has long set the city apart from the mainland. The US last week issued an advisory warning that businesses operating in Hong Kong could fall afoul of new national security legislation, in an announcement that the city’s government rejected as “misleading and untruthful.”
A spokesperson for the Immigration Department said it “does not comment on individual cases,” adding that it “acts in accordance with the laws and policies in handling each immigration case.”
Before his trip to Hong Kong, Missal said he entered China for vacation under a visa-free policy.
Missal, a master’s graduate at the University of Hong Kong, said he landed in Hong Kong late Saturday night and was questioned in a windowless room from around midnight until after noon. He was unable to sleep and called the experience “a bit emotionally distressing.”
Officers asked Missal about his work, what he planned to do in Hong Kong, his past studies in the city and in China. They also asked about his expulsion from the mainland. In 2018, authorities refused to renew Missal’s student visa after he submitted a project on human rights during his master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Missal said.
The Hong Kong authorities only cited “immigration reasons” for refusing entry before allowing him to fly to Vietnam, Missal said. He said it could be related to his work at the Tibet Initiative, his earlier expulsion from China or his previous activism related to Hong Kong.
Missal said officers didn’t remove his phone and he contacted the German consulate in Hong Kong for advice about six hours into his questioning. “They were very emotionally supportive,” he said, though they were unable to influence the decision of the immigration authorities.
The German consulate in Hong Kong didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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