A PASSENGER was forced to take a pregnancy test before the airline would let her board her flight.
Midori Nishida, 25, was travelling from Hong Kong to Saipan, a US island in the Pacific, when she was told she had to take the test.
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Midori, who lives in Japan, was travelling with Hong Kong Express Airways last November to visit her parents.
Despite saying she wasn’t pregnant on a questionnaire she was told to fill in, crew then took her to the bathroom where she was forced to urinate on the strip.
The test came up negative, where she was then allowed to board.
Midori told the Wall Street Journal it was “very humiliating and frustrating”.
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However, the airline explained the test was to “ensure US immigration laws were not being undermined”.
A report in 2016 revealed how Saipan has suffered from “birth tourism” after an influx in Chinese parents travelling to the island to have their babies so they could get US citizenship.
The Northern Marianas, of which Saipan is one of the islands, is the only destination in the US which Chinese travellers can visit without a visa.
The Saipan Tribune previously revealed 715 babies had been bored from foreign parents between 2015 and 2016, with 95 per cent of Chinese descent.
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In 2018, more tourists gave birth on the island then residents.
Pregnant tourists are not banned from travelling to the US, but they can be denied entry if they are found to lie about their purpose of travel or travelling to the country for medical procedures without the funds to pay for it.
Hong Kong Express Airways said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal: “We would like to apologise unreservedly to anyone who has been affected by this.
“We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it.”
In 2013, a Chinese tourist who was pregnant was forced to fly back to Shanghai from Saipan after fears she was travelling to give birth on the island.
Last year, 20 people were arrested after being part of a million pound scheme to get pregnant Chinese women to the US to be eligible for citizenship in the country.
Airlines have their own policies regarding pregnant travellers, although most experts claim travelling up to 36 weeks is safe.
Last year, a woman gave birth at an airport in the US after her waters broke during the flight.
Sun Online Travel contacted Hong Kong Express Airways for additional comment.
