Trapped in Hong Kong

22 year old Christian from Peru has just finished his 3 year commitment working with our ministry in Asia’s Highlands. He was on his way home to Peru earlier this week when he was apprehended by immigration authorities in London as he was trying to change to a different flight on a different airline.

 

Although British law gives Peruvian citizens permission to transit through England for up to 24 hours, Christian was denied entrance and deported back to Hong Kong. He told me that the immigration authorities simply accused him of lying about his trip home and believed he was going to try to stay illegally in London. That is the reason he was deported, even though none of it was true.

 

So Christian has been sitting in Hong Kong now for the past 4+ days. However, he is not sitting in a nice hotel room. He is still locked up in ‘no mans land’ inside the security at the Hong Kong airport. Evidently, the British immigration authorities black-listed Christian’s passport and all of the other airlines (KLM, Lufthansa, Malaysian, South African, etc..) that could possibly deliver him back to Peru refuse to do so because of the supposed “threat” that he poses. Also, Hong Kong will not allow Christian to enter their territory either because of what happened in London. Even if he is eventually allowed to fly to Peru via one of the fore-mentioned airlines, we are going to have to fork up well over $2000 to pay for the one-way flight. His original flight from London to Lima, Peru was lost when he was a no-show because of his deportation.

 

So Christian is stuck behind security at the Hong Kong airport with absolutely no place to go. He told me on the phone (they are letting him call us every now and then) that he has a little bed in a little room to sleep on. He has no showers available and all his luggage (clean clothes) has been lost in the deportation fiasco. He said that he is fed the same rice and chicken dish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and that it tastes awful.

 

Remember, all of this started when British immigration authorities accused Christian of lying about the fact that he was heading home to Peru. He had his London-Lima ticket in hand at the time, and even carried with him a printout of the British law allowing Peruvians to transit without visa (TWOV) through British airports as long as their departure flight leaves within 24 hours. But all was to no avail.

 

And here is the latest news that I received via e-mail from the authorities who are supposedly “taking care” of Christian in Hong Kong:

 

“Dear Benjamin,

I am so sorry to inform you that we received call from HongKong
Immigration and Mr Christian will be detained by immigration case
officer again and they are not intended to let Mr Christian to disembark
HongKong as well. we have no further information about the situation of
Mr Christian from immigration.

If we receive any news from HongKong Immigration about Mr Christian’s
case. We will let you know immediately.

So sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Brgds/venus”

 

So I write this post in hopes that you will pray for Christian! He is exhausted from having to fly back and forth across the world and from the more than 4 days that he has now spent locked up in the Hong Kong airport. He was supposed to have arrived home in Lima, Peru on the evening of October 1st. In Hong Kong right now, it is 7 a.m. on Sunday, October 5th. He is also obviously very discouraged because of all that has happened. Imagine what it would feel like to be accused of lying and being an “illegal immigrant” when all you want to do is get home to see your family after spending years on the mission field.

 

Also, if any of you would like to make a donation to help Christian pay for the tickets that he has lost and to help replace the clothes and personal items that were in his luggage, please e-mail me immediately or use the “Donate” button below. He hasn’t told me for sure, but I am positive that his bag was full of gifts from China for his family back home. Some of those are irreplaceable, but I want to do what I can to help him out anyways.

Until this situation is resolved, I am going to keep posting every day or two about Christian. If there is no new news, then I am going to share some testimonies about Christian and his life and ministry during these past few years in Asia’s Highlands.