Kenyan police broke through a police station wall and threw tear gas to force a second group of Taiwanese on to a plane bound for China, Taiwan's foreign ministry says, in a bizarre diplomatic row in which Taiwan has accused China of abduction.
But a senior Kenyan official said the people were in Kenya illegally and were being sent back to where they had come from.
Taiwan on Monday accused China, which regards the self-ruled island as a breakaway province, of kidnapping eight of its nationals, who it said had been acquitted in a cybercrime case in Kenya, and deporting them to China on Friday from the Nairobi district of Kilimani.
It said China had pressured Kenyan police to put the eight on the plane. China said at the time it was seeking further information about the case.
"These ones were people who were here illegally and they were deported back to the place where they had come from," says Mwenda Njoka, spokesman for Kenya's Interior Ministry.
"They came from China and we took them to China. Usually when you go to another country illegally, you are taken back to your last port of departure."
On Tuesday, another 37 Taiwan nationals were forced on to a Chinese plane, Taiwan's foreign ministry said.
"The 15 locked up at the police station steadfastly refused to be deported (to China)," said Antonio CS Chen, the chief of Taiwan's foreign ministry department in charge of West Asian and African Affairs.
"So police broke through the wall, threw tear gas and then about 10 police entered with assault rifles," Chen told a news briefing in Taipei.
When asked about the use of force, Njoka said that Kenyan police had "an obligation to ensure if people are here illegally they are taken back to where they came from".
Only 22 countries recognise Taiwan as the "Republic of China", with most, including Kenya, having diplomatic relations with the "People's Republic of China", recognising the "one China" policy of its Communist Party leaders in Beijing.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang, asked about the case, said China approved of Kenya's upholding the "one China" principle. He declined to elaborate.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office, which has said it was looking into the incident, did not immediately respond to further request for comment.
Reuters
