Home Affairs Ministry has no information on why the fiancee of a Internal Security Act (ISA) detainee was barred from entering Malaysia recently, said its minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today.

Abdullah said the denial of entry was entirely the Immigration Department's responsibility and he has no knowledge about the reasons behind it.

"It is a small matter which the Immigration Department can decide. It is not a matter that must come to my level," he told a press conference after attending a function for the visually impaired in Kuala Lumpur.

On July 20, Mabel Au, the fiancee of Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua who is currently serving a two-year detention order under the ISA, was detained by the immigration authorities upon her arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

The Chinese citizen, who is a resident of Hong Kong, was only told that she had been "blacklisted for security reasons" without any further explanation.

Au, who worked for a Bangkok-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), has been actively involved in the Abolish ISA Movement together with the families of other ISA detainees since the crackdown on 10 pro-reform activists and opposition leaders in April.

Four had been released but the others were sent to the Kamunting detention camp for a period of two years. Apart from Tian, the other five are Keadilan Youth leaders Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, Lokman Noor Adam, Saari Sungib, Dr Badrul Amin Bahron, and activist-cum-writer Hishamuddin Rais.

Au reportedly claimed that she was denied food and drinks and not allowed to contact the family of her fiance during the 13 hours she spent in a lock-up until her deportation the following day.

Threat to national security

Abdullah, who is also the deputy prime minister, said there may be "a number of different reasons" to Au's denial of entry rather than simply because she was here to visit an ISA detainee.

However, he declined to elaborate on this issue.

"I don't want to speculate on a subject which I do not know," said the minister.

Home Affairs Ministry oversees several portfolios including the Immigration Department, which is in charge of issuing visas, passes and permits to foreigners entering Malaysia, and regulating the entry and exit of persons through gazetted entry points.

Following Au's deportation, Keadilan Youth had lodged a report to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and the Chinese Embassy.

Suhakam later slammed the Immigration authorities for its decision to ban Au because she was a "threat to national security".

Earlier, Abdullah read a Malay folklore to a group of visually impaired school children at the Malaysian Association for the Blind complex as part of an effort to encourage more volunteers to help record reading materials on cassettes for their library.