Tourist on holiday to Hong Kong denied entry on return from Macau

A Filipino national holding a tourist visa for Hong Kong was denied re-entry to Hong Kong after a short trip to Macau, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

In the report it is explained that the person holding a tourist visa had been visiting a couple, both Hong Kong permanent residents, with whom she had family connections.
The incident occurred when the wife and her cousin, the tourist in question, decided to leave from Hong Kong for a day-trip to Macau. Upon their return to Hong Kong, the officer- in-charge at the Tuen Mun Ferry Pier took the cousin holding the tourist visa aside for questioning and concluded that she was not entitled to enter the region, even though she had a valid and confirmed return ticket to her homeland the next day.

The tourist was then sent back to Macau, escorted by an immigration officer, and was only granted access to her passport after arriving in Macau.

In the report to SCMP, written in a form of a letter, the reporter recorded the event and noted that his reason for writing the report was to “serve as a warning to tourists who have been permitted to stay in Hong Kong but want to go outside the SAR for a short trip.”

The Times learned that situations such as the one described in the report by the Hong Kong media outlet have occurred frequently over the last few weeks regardless of the nationality of the tourists and the destination of the trip outside Hong Kong.

According to a source accessed by the Times, in the last week of April, a similar situation occurred with a European tourist who visited Singapore for a couple of days after visiting Hong Kong for a few days before returning home. Upon arrival back in Hong Kong after her trip to Singapore, the tourist was also denied entry after a long period of questioning. She returned to Singapore for three more days until catching a pre- booked flight back to Europe.

She told the Times that the immigration officers did not specify why she was barred from entering the region, but stated that they had hinted about having performed a “background check” on her which gave rise to suspicions that she might be using her tourist visa to work or find a job, as she was a freelance artist. Nevertheless, such reasons were never delivered to her officially. RM