TORY MP Tim Loughton has been “detained and deported” from Djibouti during a 24-hour visit “due to outspoken views on China.”
MP Tim Loughton has reportedly been thrown out of East African nation of Djibouti.
Richard TownshendTim Loughton was kicked out of the East African nation of Djibouti while on a 24-hour visit[/caption]
PA(L to R) MP Tim Loughton, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and MP Stewart McDonald during a press conference at the Centre for Social Justice in central London, after a statement to Parliament that Beijing is behind a wave of state-backed interference.[/caption]
Mr Loughton, a senior member of the Home Affairs select committee, was in the country on a 24-hour visit.
The Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham said he was detained for more than seven hours at the airport upon his arrival before being barred from entering Djibouti.
He was then put on the next flight out of the country.
The MP was one of several parliamentarians who were sanctioned by Beijing three years ago.
Mr Loughton has been outspoken on the treatment of Uighurs, Tibetans and Hong Kongers under Chinese rule.
Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “This is just the latest example of the intimidation that the seven sanctioned British parliamentarians have suffered over the last three years.
“It comes hard on the heels of course of the recent revelation that three years ago our parliamentary email accounts were hacked and Westminster’s security compromised by the malign Chinese state.
“It pales into insignificance of course compared with the violence, torture and murder suffered over many decades by millions of Tibetans, Uighurs, Hong Kongers and others we stand up for in our Western democratic institutions.”
China has invested around $1billion in Djibouti as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
A Chinese embassy spokesman claimed the allegations about China were “purely baseless” and branded them “fabricated and slanderous rhetoric that attempts to smear China and poison China-UK relations”.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We provided consular support to a British man in Djibouti.”