Who is Nathan Law and why was he barred from entering SG?

SINGAPORE: It made the news this week that Nathan Law, an activist from Hong Kong, was denied entry into Singapore last Saturday (Sep 27). Mr Law told Al-Jazeera that he spent 14 hours in the city-state before being deported to the United States.

Mr Law added that he had come to Singapore to attend a “closed-door, invitation-only event.”

The Singapore Government has commented on the matter, noting that a warrant of arrest had been issued against him by the Hong Kong Police for offences under its National Security Law.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told CNA that his “entry into and presence in the country would not be in Singapore’s national interests.”

Who is Nathan Law?

The 32-year-old pro-democracy activist is a well-known former student leader. Among his other positions, he was once the secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students and, in 2014, had been part of the leadership of the Umbrella Movement, protest actions that lasted 79 days.

From these protest actions, Mr Law, together with fellow student activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, founded a new political party called Demosistō. He served as the party’s chairman.

In 2016, the party won a seat in the Legislative Council election, and Mr Law, then 23 years old, was the youngest person to have been elected. However, he was ousted from the council in 2017.

In the same year, he and Mr Wong, together with fellow student leader Alex Chow, were jailed for having stormed into Civic Square at the start of the Umbrella Revolution.

Demosistō was disbanded in 2020, the same year that Mr Law began his self-exile in London. In 2021, he was given political asylum in the United Kingdom.

Two years later, authorities in Hong Kong issued an arrest warrant for Mr Law and several other activists living overseas, along with a HK$1 million (S$166,000) bounty.

Denied entry into Singapore

In January 2024, amid allegations online that Singapore might be used as a platform for elections in Indonesia, MHA said that the Government “takes a clear and strong stand against the importation of politics of other countries into Singapore.”

The ministry also said that people who visit, work, or live in Singapore should not use it for political campaigns, fundraising, or pushing a political agenda while they are not in their own country.

As for Mr Law, CNA quoted an MHA spokesperson as saying, “A visa holder is still subject to further checks at the point of entry into the country. That is what happened with Nathan Law.”

After he landed in Singapore, the activist was referred for “questioning, and immigration and security assessment”, the spokesperson added. /TISG

Read also: HK court forbids Joshua Wong from travelling to London to receive human rights award from British parliament