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SCMP, January 21, 2003

By Stella Lee

A party of 13 Hong Kong tourists who went on a European holiday carrying 60 credit cards between them are back home after being detained for 30 hours and strip-searched on their arrival in Paris.

One of the travellers admitted paying just $2,000 to join the 20-day tour to Europe in return for buying luxury brand goods on behalf of a 'trading company' sending goods to Japan.

However, another traveller, Gloria Wong, insisted the group had only gone to Europe for holidays and complained of her 'humiliating' ordeal at the hands of French officials. She said she paid $20,000 for the trip.

Ms Wong said they were stopped by Customs officers when they arrived in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport last Tuesday evening.

The 10 women and three men, aged between 30 and 45, were taken to a room in handcuffs where they had their bags searched. 'They seized all our passports and credit cards,' Ms Wong said. 'We had about 60 cards in total and they said it was impossible for us to have so many. But we brought so many cards as we heard that there were lots of robbery cases and we did not want to carry too much cash.'

After being detained at the airport for about five hours, Ms Wong said they were driven to a police station where they were each subjected to a 10-minute strip search. 'It was so humiliating. They had the right to suspect us but they shouldn't have treated us like dogs. It's so discriminatory,' Ms Wong said.

She said they were also interrogated by the police who accused them of a series of crimes ranging from possessing forged documents and fake credit cards to trafficking dangerous drugs, laundering money and being triad members. She said the police asked why they had so many empty bags and if they intended to buy luxury brands for gangs making fake goods. 'We intended to buy but we do not have any plan to sell them. They're for our friends,' she said.

Ms Wong said they were kept in a small room in a basement overnight and freed the following day after one of the tour members complained of feeling unwell and the police failed to find any evidence against them.

Nine of the 13 people returned to Hong Kong immediately while Ms Wong and two others returned to Hong Kong on Saturday. One is staying on in Paris.

'We originally intended to go on to other places like Italy, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. But we dared not go ahead with our trip as we feared that we would face the same treatment,' Ms Wong said.

Another member of the tour party last night admitted that she paid $2,000 to join the trip to help buy luxury brand goods for delivery to Japan. She said she did not know whether the goods were intended as parallel imports or as a basis for pirated designs. She said the terms of the deal stipulated that anyone who failed to buy at least $230,000 worth of goods would be penalised.

'I regret it so much now,' she said. 'It's a black spot in my life. The experience was terrible and I feel I've been in a horror film. I'm telling the truth because I don't want other people to go through what we've been through.'

However, she said their treatment was unfair because they had not yet done anything wrong.

An Immigration Department spokesman last night said they received a request for assistance from the 13 people on Wednesday and offered them help with the aid of the Chinese Embassy. While she stressed that the detention was unrelated to the travellers' Hong Kong passports, she declined to say why they were targeted.

In the past, Hong Kong tourists in Europe have been duped by fake goods producers into buying products which are then sent to the mainland to be copied.

Glossary

on behalf of (phrase) used when one does something for another person. For example, A does it on behalf of B. A is the person who takes action, but B is the one who benefits.

ordeal (n) an unpleasant or tiresome experience

in handcuffs (phrase) handcuffs are a pair of metal rings linked by a short chain and designed to lock around a person's wrists Handcuff can be a verb, for example, the suspect is handcuffed to a policeman.We may say that the policeman put the handcuffs on the suspect.

interrogate (v) to question closely

parallel imports (n) genuine products that have not been imported through official distributors. They probably offer no warranty or after-sales service.

Discussion points

- Do you think the treatment of Ms Wong and her fellow travellers by the French police is justified? Give your reasons.

- If someone offers to sponsor you to go on a tour on the condition that you buy brand-name goods for them, would you accept the offer? Why?

- Does it matter if you know the products are for re-sale in Hong Kong? What if they will be used for producing pirated goods?



Strip-searched and handcuffed: tourists tell of Paris nightmare