HK immigration biased against Filipinas

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: October 31, 2008

I write this letter to let the Filipino people know of the racism and abuse being done by immigration agents at the Hong Kong International Airport to Filipino women.

I am a US citizen. On Oct. 5, 2008 I flew from the United States to Hong Kong to meet my Filipino girlfriend. We are engaged to be married. Having heard from a friend that Hong Kong is a very romantic city, we were considering getting married there.

Due to a storm, I arrived Oct. 5 in Hong Kong almost three hours after she did. But she was nowhere to be found. However, I was able to locate her unclaimed suitcase in the baggage area.

To my horror, I found out later that she was being detained by immigration agents. She told them that she was meeting me, a US citizen; she gave my name, my flight information, even the hotel information. Immigration agents could have easily verified with me if the information she gave was true. I was there waiting for her for hours, unaware she was being detained. The immigration agents never bothered to find me even though I was in the baggage area for hours.

I found out from Chinese desk agents working for two major airlines that Filipinos, especially young women, are routinely singled out by immigration agents and detained, for fear that these women will stay illegally in Hong Kong. It was clear that the airline agents and security guards I spoke with were afraid of criticizing the immigration agents for fear of losing their jobs or worse.

My girlfriend later told me that she and three other Filipino women were held in detention that night; another Filipino woman had been held for three days. My girlfriend was interrogated like she was a criminal. Her crime? Being a young Filipino woman traveling alone in Hong Kong.

Her phone was taken from her. She was not allowed to call anyone. She was held for around 16 hours with nothing to eat. She and the other women were also subjected to a humiliating strip-search for drugs.

Like the other detained women, my girlfriend has no criminal record and has a valid Philippine passport. After her 16-hour ordeal she was allowed to leave on the airline that brought her there.

I later traveled to Manila to meet her. I was at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila and I saw many young Chinese women from Hong Kong who were visiting Manila. How would the Chinese government react if their citizens were treated the way my girlfriend and other Filipino women are being treated in Hong Kong? Held without cause, denied food, isolated and then strip-searched?

Filipinos reading this should be outraged as I am. I am a lawyer and I can tell you that if that happened in the United States, there would be a tremendous public outcry. There are probably Filipino citizens right now being detained in Hong Kong for no other reason than their being Filipino.

And where are the airlines in this? Why are the airlines not complaining about the treatment of their paying customers? The airlines are aware of this racist treatment of Filipinos.

ANDREW LEE, Esq. (via email)