Taiwan workers in Kenya 'abducted' to China

Up to 45 Taiwanese citizens have been flown against their will from Kenya to mainland China, heightening cross-straits tensions and sparking a diplomatic crisis. In a grainy cellphone video allegedly shot inside a Kenyan jail, a group of men barricade the cell door as a woman's voice warns them to be careful of the armed police outside. "Sir! We are Taiwan people, Taiwan people!" one shouts. The police later used tear gas to force the prisoners out of their cell and onto a plane to China, Taiwan Foreign Ministry official Antonio Chen told reporters Tuesday. Taiwan has denounced the "extrajudicial abduction" of its citizens as a "gross violation of basic human rights" and accused Kenyan and Chinese officials of ignoring a local High Court's injunction against the deportations. Acquitted, then deported The alleged abductions come after a protracted legal affair in Kenya involving both Chinese and Taiwanese workers in the country who were accused of running a complex phone and internet scamming operation. A Kenyan court acquitted the Taiwanese of all charges after which they were released. But their freedom was short lived, according to Taiwan's Foreign Ministry, which said in a statement that the workers were detained by police when they attempted to retrieve their passports on April 5. Dozens of those detained were then "forcefully taken to a passenger plane of China Southern Airlines and sent to the mainland," the Ministry said. According to Chen, the Foreign Ministry official, one of the people deported to China is a dual Taiwanese-U.S. citizen.