Vietnam has denied entry to two prominent rights campaigners invited to attend this week's World Economic Forum in Hanoi, as the one-party communist state continues its hard line on critics of its dismal rights record.

Leaders from Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) were both barred from entering Vietnam for the meeting, the campaign groups said...

FIDH secretary general Debbie Stothard was held at Hanoi's airport for 15 hours after arriving on Sunday (Sep 9) before being deported to Malaysia early the next morning.

Her "arbitrary detention" was "based on the absurd accusation that she poses a threat to Vietnam's national security", Andrea Giorgetta, FIDH Director of Asia Desk, told AFP in a statement.

Amnesty said its senior director of global operations Minar Pimple was also denied a visa to attend the WEF summit, which will host regional leaders and big names from global business...

A spokeswoman for WEF confirmed that Stothard and Pimple had both been denied entry to the meeting, but that their invitations to the forum remained in place...