The Foreign Office has asked for more information from the government of Djibouti after a Conservative MP and prominent critic of China claimed he was deported from the African country, which has close links with Beijing.
Tim Loughton, who was travelling from Somaliland, said he was detained for seven hours at the airport in Djibouti before being escorted onto a flight leaving the small nation, a former French colony close to the Horn of Africa.
Mr. Loughton, who has been a long-time critic of Beijing, last month appeared at a press conference for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China when his colleague, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said MPs would not be “bullied into silence by Beijing.”
It came after Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden accused China of being behind two “malicious cyber campaigns” against the Electoral Commission and MPs.
Mr. Loughton is one of a number of British MPs sanctioned by China in 2021.
It ‘All Went Very Frosty’
Mr. Loughton said he was the focus of “strange looks” when he handed over his passport and said, “all went very frosty” when he said he was an MP.
He explained, “I had been on a delegation to neighbouring Somaliland for a few days before, which is a really interesting part of the world and one where China poses a bit of a threat.”
“The rest of my colleagues came back via Ethiopia but I thought I would come back via Djibouti … to see what is going on there, but also to have a meeting with the ambassador for a debrief on my way back,” added Mr. Loughton.
He said he had intended to spend 30 hours in Djibouti before catching a plan home but said they refused to allow him in.
MP Claims Djibouti is Chinese ‘Vassal State’
Mr. Loughton said there was, “no reason not to let me into the country” and added: “Djibouti is effectively a vassal state of China. We have been making quite a lot of criticisms of China in our trip to Somaliland because of the threat they pose in the region.”“Basically what China wants Djibouti kowtows to, and having a troublesome MP who has been sanctioned by China turning up on their doorsteps clearly was something they didn’t want to entertain, so I was escorted onto the first plane home,” he added.
The prime minister’s official spokesman was asked about the incident on Monday and told reporters, “I believe that in this specific case that you refer to the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which] provided consular support to Mr. Loughton at the time and they have also raised this case with the Djiboutians.”
“Whilst obviously the authorities have the right to refuse entry at their own discretion, the FCDO have sought further information about this specific case,” he added.
The BBC reported that a Chinese Embassy spokesman had said Mr. Loughton’s claims were baseless.
France, Japan, and the United States also have bases in the country, which is strategically placed at the southern end of the Red Sea, close to one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.
Djibouti became independent from France in 1977.
The country’s 76-year-old president, Ismail Omar Guelleh, a former intelligence officer, came to power in 1999 and has been reelected four times in elections in which the opposition has repeatedly highlighted voting irregularities.
