India, June 18 -- Taiwan accused Kenya on Wednesday of human rights abuses against its nationals attending a global oceans conference in Mombasa and blamed China for exerting pressure on the East African country.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said the scholars' passports and mobile phones were confiscated and they were detained for more than 20 hours before being deported. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei said it "strongly protests and condemns China's pressure on the Kenyan Government to refuse Taiwanese scholars' attendance at the international ocean academic exchange conference, as well as the barbaric acts of confiscating passports, mobile phones, and restricting personal and communication freedoms - actions that...