Anger at Germany's deportation of Vietnamese activist

Germany's deportation of a Vietnamese author and human rights activist back to his communist-ruled homeland sparked protests yesterday.

Nguyen Quang Hong Nhan, 65, and his wife were expelled last week by immigration authorities in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg.

The deportation took place despite the fact Vietnam considers Nhan a "state enemy" and sentenced him to 20 years' jail.

Ralf Nestmeyer, Germany vice president of the PEN writers association, said he was "appalled by the deportation", in an open letter to Bavaria's state interior minister Joachim Herrmann and the immigration department.

"How can you deport an author whose livelihood is the freedom of the word to a land known for repression and censorship?" Nestmeyer wrote.

The left-leaning Greens party also protested the March 26 deportation, labelling it "absolutely cruel and inhumane" and a "complete failure of Bavarian asylum policy".