The Director of Immigration yesterday defended the 21-day detention of a Vietnamese tourist who lost her passport, saying many overstayers working illegally in the SAR claimed to have lost their travel documents.
Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong denied officers discriminated against certain nationalities. They did not detain anybody unreasonably, he said.
'There are quite a lot of overstayers working illegally or engaging in prostitution in Hong Kong, claiming they have lost their passports. Therefore we have to handle the cases carefully,' he said at Chek Lap Kok as he left on an official visit to Germany.
Nguyen Thi Anh Loan, 29, was arrested on August 8 after failing to provide identity documents during a police anti-prostitution operation at a building in Yau Ma Tei where she says she was visiting a friend.
Ms Nguyen, who says her passport was stolen three days after her arrival on a seven-day visa on July 27, was then detained by the Immigration Department for 21 days. She was freed on her own recognisance last Thursday and is awaiting a new passport.
She claims a female Correctional Services Department officer at Victoria immigration detention centre hit her, that she was misled into signing a police statement admitting she had stayed illegally, and that she was not allowed to make telephone calls.
