A British member of parliament was refused entry to Hong Kong last week, the first to have received such treatment since the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997.
Wera Hobhouse, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party representing Bath, wrote on social media platform Bluesky: “Authorities gave me no explanation for this cruel and upsetting blow. I hope the Foreign Secretary will recognize that this is an insult to all parliamentarians and seek answers from the Chinese Ambassador.”
British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy on Sunday said he was deeply concerned and would be urgently raising the issue with the Chinese authorities.
Photo: Reuters
The Sunday Times newspaper said Hobhouse, 65, flew to Hong Kong with her husband on Thursday on a personal trip to visit her newborn grandson, whom she was unable to see or hold.
It said she had her passport confiscated, was asked about her job and the purpose of her visit, had her luggage searched and was then taken to the boarding gate.
“When I was given the decision my voice was shaking and I was just saying: ‘Why, please explain to me?’,” the British weekly quoted her as saying.
Hobhouse said on Bluesky: “Authorities gave me no explanation for this cruel and upsetting blow. I hope the foreign secretary will recognize that this is an insult to all parliamentarians and seek answers.”
The British Consulate in Hong Kong replied to an Associated Press inquiry, saying it is aware that a UK member of parliament was denied entry into Hong Kong on Thursday and is “raising this urgently” with the city’s authorities.
There was no immediate response from authorities in Hong Kong. However, in similar previous cases, they have said they give no explanations for refusing to allow entry.
Hobhouse is one of more than 40 parliamentarians on the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China that scrutinizes Beijing’s human rights record.
Beijing objects viscerally to all such criticism and has rendered the Sino-British Agreement under which Hong Kong was turned over to Chinese rule null and void.
It has also slapped travel and financial sanctions on various Hong Kong officials who took part in the 2019 protests.
“It is deeply concerning to hear that an MP on a personal trip has been refused entry to Hong Kong,” Lammy said.
“We will urgently raise this with the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing to demand an explanation,” he said.
Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team’s victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday, with 11 mainly young fans crushed to death, the local state’s chief minister said. Joyous cricket fans had come out to celebrate and welcome home their heroes, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, after they beat Punjab Kings in a roller-coaster Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket final on Tuesday night. However, the euphoria of the vast crowds in the southern tech city of Bengaluru ended in disaster, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra calling it “absolutely heartrending.” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the deceased are young, with 11 dead
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS