Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng has told journalists he is at Beijing's international airport and awaiting departure to the United States.
"I'm at the airport. I do not have a passport. I don't know when I will be leaving. I think I'm going to New York," he told the AFP news agency by telephone on Saturday.
He said he thought Chinese authorities might hand his passport directly to US officials, who would then insert a US visa before giving it to him.
"I might be heading for a flight to the United States, but I haven't been told, and I haven't received our passports, so I'm not sure yet," Chen told the Reuters news agency. "We're waiting to find out what's happening."
China allowed Chen, 40, to leave a hospital in Beijing to go to the US, a Texas-based Christian advocacy group, ChinaAid, said in a statement.
Chen and his family "were informed to pack up and get ready to leave China" for the United States on Saturday, the group said. It said Chen had informed ChinaAid's president Bob Fu of the developments on Saturday.
An AFP photographer located outside the hospital where Chen had been for more than two weeks witnessed a motorcade leaving the hospital compound in the early afternoon. It was not clear whether Chen was in the motorcade.
Chen told the Associated Press that his wife and two children were with him, but that they all did not yet have their passports. Also with him were hospital and border control staff.
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