A democracy activist who fled from Hong Kong was refused to enter Singapore, even though he was granted a visa. The city state said that its presence “would not be in its national interests”.
Nathan Law, who lives in exile in Great Britain, said that he had arrived in Singapore on Saturday to take part in a conference “closed doors, only invitations”, but was arrested for hours at the border before he was deported.
“I was not asked any questions and they gave no reason for the rejection,” he told the BBC.
Mr. Law, who previously worked as a local legislator in Hong Kong, is one of eight in the exile activist who is looking for the city’s authorities who have accused him of having endangered national security.
Singapore has an delivery contract with Hong Kong.
“Mr. Law’s entry into the country and the presence in the country would not be in the national interests of Singapore,” said the ministry’s spokesman in response to questions of the BBC.
“A visa owner is still subject to further reviews at the country. This happened with Nathan Law,” said the spokesman, adding that MR Law was landed by his country for “survey and immigration and security evaluation”.
The government had previously said that it “took a clear and strong stand against the import of the politics of other countries in Singapore”.
In a statement that Mr. The law said he believed The rejection of the entry consisted of “political” reasons. “I am not sure whether external forces such as the VR China (People’s Republic of China) are directly or indirectly involved,” he said.
Mr. Law said he had applied for a visa that would have given him a “unique entry for a few days”. And that it was approved three weeks before his departure. He said he had a British refugee travel document.
On Sunday, the activist was brought back to San Francisco on the earliest flight, where he initially drove out.
The organizers of the event in which he should participate have refused to comment on the BBC.
The BBC also contacted the Hong Kong and the British authorities to get a comment.
During his routine press conference on Monday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: “Each country has the right to manage entry and exit itself.”
He also described Mr. Law as “an anti-China, anti-Hong Kong-Unknestifter, which the police in Hong Kong put it on the list you are looking for”.
Mr. Law, a former legislator in Hong Kong, who Is one of the best-known personalities in the Pro-Democratic movement of the city and fled from the territory in 2020 after China imposed a comprehensive National Security Act that rewarded itself with spzession, subversion and terrorism with punishments to life in prison.
In 2021 he was Admittedly asylum in Great Britain.
Have the authorities in Hong Kong offered rewards of 1 million hk $ ($ 128,000; 95,000 GBP) for information that can help you arrest MR Law and other Pro Democracy activists.
This is not the first time that the authorities in Singapore have taken measures in relation to Pro Democracy activists in Hong Kong.
In 2019, the city-state punished a Singapore activist because he held an online forum a few years earlier, in which the celebrity activist Joshua Wong spoke in a conference call.
