Apr 29, 2008, 12:17 GMT
Hong Kong - Actress Mia Farrow may be barred from entering Hong Kong to give a speech about human rights on the day the Olympic torch is carried through the city, a legislator claimed Tuesday.
Mia Farrow poses for pictures at the Center for Social Development in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 19 January 2008. Farrow appeared on a collision course with Cambodian authorities Saturday after her supporters vowed she would proceed with an anti-China rally at a former Khmer Rouge jail Sunday despite Cambodian government objections. EPA/MAK REMISSA
Prominent pro-democracy legislator Emily Lau said she had heard that the actress, who has criticized China for failing to stop genocide in the Sudan, would not be allowed into Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong government declined to confirm or deny the claim but said in a statement it had a responsibility to enforce immigration controls 'to ensure Hong Kong's public interest.'
Danish sculptor and human rights activist Jens Galschiot and his sons were sent home on Saturday after arriving in Hong Kong to take part in anti-China protests on Friday when the torch relay takes place.
Galschiot has visited Hong Kong before and created the Pillar of Shame, a permanent memorial at the University of Hong Kong to the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing.
Speaking on government-run radio RTHK, Lau described the refusal to admit the artist as 'really terrible' and said she had heard that Farrow, who is due to arrive later this week, might also be barred.
'Mia Farrow is coming to attend a press conference and some other events, and some people tell me she and others may also be turned away,' Lau said.
'If we do that, we are going to turn ourselves into an international laughing stock. These are people with a very, very high international profiles. They are not the Taliban of al-Qaeda - so what is going on here?'
Referring to the expulsion of Galschiot and his sons, Lau said: 'These guys are not coming her to create trouble but it seems our administration is so tense, so frightened.
'We've become a very frightened city. We are turning people away at our airport every day now.'
Farrow, 63, is due to speak at a Foreign Correspondents' Club lunch on Friday where she is expected to repeat her call for China to act on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
Asked if Farrow would be allowed to enter Hong Kong for the event, an Immigration Department spokeswoman said in a statement: 'The Hong Kong government will not comment on individual cases.
'The Immigration Department has the responsibility to uphold effective immigration control so as to ensure Hong Kong's public interest.
'The department will handle all entry applications in accordance with the law and prevailing policy and having due regard to the individual circumstances.'
Security is expected to be extremely tight in Hong Kong on Friday as the Olympic torch returns to Chinese soil for the first time after its troubled round-the-world tour.
The former British colony is the only place inside China where demonstrations and anti-China protests are allowed and a number of groups are planning to mount demonstrations to coincide with the relay.
Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed Chief Executive Donald Tsang is expected to be the first of 120 torch-bearers to run in the 33- kilometre relay, which will be marshalled by 3,000 police.
Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under a 'one country, two systems' arrangement guaranteeing political freedoms including the right to peaceful protest.
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