HONG KONG
The ten-hour flight from Nairobi to Hong Kong passed unremarkably. At Hong Kong International Airport, I had expected to be allowed through with no more than the usual questions. But after the austere-looking immigration officer leafed through my passport, he motioned to a colleague standing close by. When the colleague came they conversed briefly in Chinese and I was asked to follow him. He led me to a small waiting area with a preponderance of Indian and African faces. Wait to be called, he said, and left with my passport. It became apparent that I was waiting to be put to interview. A few moments later a different immigration officer approached a middle-aged Indian man sitting behind me and told him he had been refused admittance into Hong Kong. The man--who had a wife and two small children at his side--was heartbroken. "But visa okay, passport okay, why not?" he asked, choking back tears. The reasons, she said, could not be disclosed. The most she could te...