The first African nation to host the global oceans conference defends the deportations, saying it ‘recognises only one China’.

Taiwan has accused Kenya of deporting people from the island who planned to attend a global oceans conference in Mombasa and blamed Beijing for exerting pressure on the East African country.

Focus Taiwan, the English-language website of Taiwan’s Central News Agency, reported that two delegation members headed to the Our Ocean Conference were denied entry and detained by Kenyan immigration authorities.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that the scholars’ passports and mobile phones were confiscated as they were detained for more than 20 hours before being deported.

In a statement, the ministry condemned “the barbaric acts of confiscating passports, mobile phones, and restricting personal and communication freedoms – actions that violate human rights and international norms”.

Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council (OAC), its government body in charge of marine-related policies, said the visas were revoked at the last minute and described the incident as “barbaric obstruction”.

OAC Minister Kuan Bi-ling said “political interference yields no benefit for ocean governance” at a time when “the world’s ocean needs deeper and wider cooperation”.

Kenya defended its decision to deport the Taiwan representatives. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said his country’s foreign policy “recognises only one China”.

“Any person purporting to hold a Taiwanese passport would ordinarily not be allowed through our borders for lacking proper documentation and would not in any event be part of a formal state meeting convened by Kenya government,” Sing’oei said.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 as a result of a civil war. For decades, China has seen Taiwan as its own territory and said the island must come under its control, even through the use of force if necessary.

Kenya is hosting the annual oceans conference, which focuses on addressing critical ocean issues, including climate change, biodiversity and pollution. Organisers have sought to position Africa, which is hosting the event for the first time, as a driving force in global ocean governance.

The challenge for African and Commonwealth nations attending the conference is to push forward the implementation of a landmark treaty adopted in June 2023 to protect the high seas. Despite record commitments to marine conservation, much of the world’s ocean protections still exist only on paper.

Delegates said the coming months will be critical in determining whether the treaty, the Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, becomes a transformative tool for ocean conservation or another set of international promises that fail to materialise.