Itanagar
A woman from Arunachal Pradesh was allegedly harrassed and detained at China’s Shanghai airport for “eighteen hours” after the authorities refused to recognise her indian passport as valid, claiming that the region “is part of China.”
According to the woman, Pem Wang Thongdok, she was at the Shanghai airport for a three-hour transit halt while travelling from London to Japan on November 21. She accused the Chinese authorities of refusing to recognise her Indian passport as valid during a transit halt. In a series of posts on the microblogging site X, she said immigration officials at the airport detained her for “eighteen hours” on November 21, claiming her passport was “invalid” as her birthplace, Arunachal Pradesh, was “part of China”.
“After immigration, I submitted my passport and was waiting at security. Just then, an official came and started screaming, ‘India, India,’ with my name and singled me out. When I asked, she took me to the immigration desk and said, ‘Arunachal, not valid passport’,” she wrote on a social media post.
When she questioned why her passport is not valid, the officer allegedly replied, “Arunachal is a part of China. Your passport is invalid,” the post added.
“The airline staff of China Eastern and about two other immigration officers were speaking in their language and saying and pointing out and saying Arunachal and laughing and calling it China, not India. That was a very humiliating, questionable behaviour from the immigration staff as well as the airline staff”, she alleged. Thongdok said she couldn’t get in touch with her family for a very long time.