Why Hong Kong police stopped sending anti-government protesters to the remote and controversial San Uk Ling Holding Centre

Detainees accused police of torturing or mistreating them at the Sheung Shui facility, previously used to hold mainland Chinese stowaways

The force rejected the allegations, but will in future keep activists at police stations

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The centre, set up in 1979, is about 1.5km from the city’s border with Shenzhen. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 7:29pm, 27 Sep 2019Updated: 11:36pm, 27 Sep 2019

Hong Kong’s leader announced on Thursday that police would stop holding anti-government protesters at a controversial facility where detainees have alleged abuse in custody.

Police have denied the accusations, but the treatment of protesters at the San Uk Ling Holding Centre, in Sheung Shui, has sparked widespread concern. Activists gathered at Edinburgh Place on Friday evening to express their support for people who were held there.

Where is San Uk Ling Holding Centre and why it was built?

The detention centre was set up in 1979 in Man Kam To, roughly 1.5km from the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border. Back then it was intended to hold stowaways from mainland China, before they were sent back.

After the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing on June 4, 1989, it became a temporary shelter for protesters saved by Operation Yellow Bird – an eight-year scheme that helped Chinese dissidents escape overseas via Hong Kong.

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