Democratic Party legislator Andrew Wan Siu-kin has been denied entry to Macau, making him the second lawmaker to be barred from the city in a month.
According to South China Morning Post, Wan said he arrived in Macau at about 1pm Sunday. While he was using the e-channel to clear immigration, a light came on. He was then taken to a room and handed a letter, which said he posed a threat to the city’s internal security.
The former Democratic Party vice-chairman then took the 1.45pm ferry back to Hong Kong.
“I was just travelling with my family and the families of two of my former colleagues,” he said. “I do not see how this can be a threat.”
Wan said this was the second time he had been barred from Macau since 2015. He added that after taking up the post of vice-chairman of the Democratic Party in 2014 – from which he has now stepped down – he had not been able to enter Macau.
Wan said he would ask the Security Bureau in Hong Kong to follow up on the case and the Macau government to explain why it was rejecting pan-democrats.
Two weeks ago, accountancy sector lawmaker Kenneth Leung, a moderate pan-democrat, was denied entry. He was going there on holiday with his family, but was turned back on security grounds.
Albert Ho Chun-yan, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, said he thought Macau was taking instructions from Beijing, adding it could be something to do with state leader Zhang Dejiang’s visit in May. He added that Macau enclave was going backwards.
At least 11 pan-democrat lawmakers have been refused entry at least once since 2008, alongside a number of social activists.
In January, radical lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen of People Power and former legislator Frederick Fung Kin-Kee, who is perceived as a moderate, were denied entry.
(South China Morning Post)
