The Ministry of Justice said the requirement for visitors from China to have their fingerprints taken upon arrival should be implemented as soon as possible.
Since the "fingerprinting" regulation is prescribed in the newly revised Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
The officials made the call during a meeting on Monday held by the Mainland Affairs Council, after the ministry presented a report on the prevention of criminal activities by people from China.
At present, certain categories of Chinese citizens, including professionals and technicians, can visit Taiwan. The statute on cross-strait exchanges requires fingerprinting for them, but the requirement has not been implemented because some measures have yet to be fleshed out.
As the government is preparing to open the door for ordinary Chinese citizens to sightsee in Taiwan, the ministry officials said they would push for a legal revision to require fingerprinting for Chinese tourists, as well as Chinese fishery workers aboard Taiwanese fishing boats and detained illegal immigrants.
According to the officials, the lack of a databank on personal information of Chinese people -- such as fingerprints, DNA files or criminal records -- makes it difficult to investigate crimes involving Chinese visitors or nab Chinese criminals, whether they entered the country legally or not.
According to the ministry's statistics, from 2001 to last year, crimes perpetrated by Chinese people were mainly related to document forgery and violations of national security.
RSS