Malaysians 'were workers, not tourists'

Two Malaysians who claimed they were sent back to Asia as suspected terrorists were rejected because of suspicions they were coming to work, immigration staff say.

Businessman Lee Kum Meng, 30, and travelling companion Lerng Hoi Sang, 52, were plucked from their tour group at Auckland Airport and put on a flight back to their home country by the Immigration Service.

Spokeswoman Michelle Williams said staff did not believe they were tourists.

"They could not tell an interpreter their itinerary, nor any sights that they wanted to see in this country," she said.

"We believed they might have come here to work without permits.

The pair touched down in Auckland on February 10 with 14 others in a tour group.

Malaysia's Star newspaper reported that an immigration officer, who identified herself as Alice, said the two men were denied entry because of "security reasons".

"It is our discretion whether to allow your countrymen in," she said, according to the newspaper.

Their passports were later seized and they spent the night in a lock-up. When the interrogators found that neither Mr Lerng nor Mr Lee spoke English, they brought in a Chinese-speaking officer to question them.

"We were glad to see the officer and explained to him that we were on a tour," Mr Lee told the newspaper.

"However, the officer was more interested to know if we belonged to any terrorist group."

The pair were released the next day and put on a Singapore-bound flight, the Star reported.

Their passports were returned to them by officials at Changi Airport.

The men said it was their first trip abroad and years of saving to celebrate the Year of the Rooster had gone down the drain.

They said they had paid about $5280 to a Kuala Lumpur travel company for the trip.

Ms Williams said no one named Alice worked for Immigration at the airport and the pair were definitely not stopped for security reasons.

Immigration has stopped 345 Malaysians at the border in the year to February 17, mostly because of doubts that they are genuine tourists.

The two men told the Star newspaper that their pictures were taken and their fingerprints stamped on several documents before they were led to a room to be questioned.

Ms Williams said those claims did not relate to anything done by the Immigration Service, but could have happened when the pair were held overnight by police.

Mr Lee said that in addition to feeling embarrassed, they were upset with the tour leader "for not bailing us out when we were in trouble".

The pair intended to write to the New Zealand High Commission about the "hostile treatment" they had been given.

- NZPA