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- Netizen shares traumatic experience in Hong Kong’s immigration office
- Filipinos get detained in an airport in Hong Kong for almost 10 hours
Facebook user Grace Ann Bartolome posted about her planned trip to Hong Kong with her friends.
According to Bartolome’s story, they saved up and planned their “dream trip” to Hong Kong and were really excited once their ‘leaves’ from work got approved.
They succeeded in leaving the Philippines but when they arrived in Hong Kong, they were approached by an employee who was wearing a blue polo shirt.
He asked if that was their first time in Hong Kong and they answered yes. He asked a few more questions but it still ended up with him bringing them to the office wherein they got interviewed individually.
They thought that as soon as their interviews ended, they could continue on with their planned trip but they got transferred to another office to sign some papers. That’s when they were also informed that they cannot enter Hong Kong.
They asked the officer regarding the reason but he failed to explain. They showed the address of the place they were supposed to stay and the name of the person that will pick them up but the officer only said that they were scheduled to go back to the Philippines 7pm that night.
They continued asking for an explanation but the officer continued to ignore them. They explained that they have someone waiting for them and they need to tell her about the situation.
They called Bartolome and as the officer was leading her somewhere, she contacted her friend’s aunt to inform her that they’re currently at the immigration’s office.
She got caught by the female officer and asked for her to surrender her phone. The officer also began looking through her stuff as she asked about her friends.
They proceeded on confiscating her stuff and storing it in a locker. Her friend then got the chance to talk to her aunt but they still were not allowed to leave the office.
The three friends got detained for almost 10 hours and around 6 pm, a female officer then entered holding their tickets for a flight back to the Philippines.
The one thing that shocked them is that the officer charged them for the tickets even though the immigration officer told them that they’ll go back for free.
The flight got delayed and they left Hong Kong at around 8:30. When they got back to Manila, someone talked to them and told them that it’s a regular scenario wherein the immigration office of Hong Kong sends back tourists.
The Philippine government and the Hong Kong immigration office has yet to comment regarding the issue.
