The Executive Yuan said it was considering raising the quota on Chinese tourists allowed to travel to Taiwan after 37 tourists from Shenyang, Liaoning Province, were sent back on Saturday because they did not have entry permits.
Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said in Nantou on Friday that the adjustment was necessary because the number of Chinese traveling to Taiwan could hit 7,000 people per day by next month, adding that the number of tourists had exceeded 4,000 people per day over the past two days.
The Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that the Executive Yuan had said no cross-strait negotiation was required to increase the quota.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) told the Taipei Times yesterday that the adjustment would not require further negotiation with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).
He said that although the previous agreement signed by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and ARATS had put the daily quota at 3,000 people, the agreement also mentioned that tourism officials on both sides of the Strait could adjust the quota without first engaging in discussions at the third round of cross-strait talks.
SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) are expected to sign three agreements during the talks to be held in Nanjing, China, from Friday to the following Wednesday.
Liu Te-shun said that it would be necessary to raise the daily quota given the “needs and market” in Taiwan.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said that since January it had fined airlines or ships in 148 cases for carrying passengers to the nation who did not possess valid travel permits or visas.
A total of 323 similar cases occurred in 2007, with 403 cases last year, the agency said.
Thirty-seven Chinese tourists from Shenyang were sent back to China on Saturday for failing to secure entry permits to Taiwan.
The tour guide, who had obtained an entry permit, left with the group.
Roget Hsu (?y), Travel Agent Association (TAA) secretary general, said his association’s preliminary investigation showed that a travel agency in Shenyang had applied for entry permits on behalf of these tourists and their tour guide.
“But their applications did not arrive at the NIA until Thursday, and the tour group was scheduled to come on Saturday,” Hsu said. “None of the local travel agencies wanted to take over this group because it was too risky.”
The TAA is a private association assisting the government in reviewing visa applications for Chinese tourists. Chinese tourists first join a tour group formed in China, which is then taken over by a Taiwanese travel agency that guides them once they arrive.
Hsu said NIA officials used to work extra hours to review the applications of Chinese tourists so they could quickly obtain entry permits to Taiwan, but that was when there were not that many Chinese tourists.
However, he said the NIA’s workload had drastically increased as the average number of Chinese tourists had exceeded 3,000 per day. It was almost impossible for the NIA to finish reviewing the applications of the Shenyang group by the end of the week, Hsu said.
Hsu said that the Chinese government only approved the travel agency in Shenyang to organize tour groups to Taiwan after the second round of cross-strait talks.
“It was the agency’s first tour group to Taiwan and they probably thought the Taiwanese government would give them a break,” Hsu said. “I think they’ve learned their lesson this time.”
Hsu also said a visa application overload problem had occurred on Thursday, when 77 Chinese tourists arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport without entry permits.
Meanwhile, the NIA fined Xiamen Airlines NT$1.85 million (US$54,700) for allowing passengers without entry permits to board its aircraft.
The NIA called on tour companies yesterday to do its utmost to respect immigration rules after the 38 Chinese were sent back for attempting to enter Taiwan without proper travel documents.
NIA spokesman Hu Jing-fu (胡景福) told a press conference that the group of 37 people, including the tour guide, arrived at Songshan Airport in Taipei at 2:47pm on Saturday without adequate entry permits. The tour group also did not have an official registration number, Hu said.
The agency immediately notified Xiamen Airlines via its partner, TransAsia Airways, of its decision to bar the group from entering Taiwan. The entire group — including the tour guide, surnamed Wang, who was the only one with the proper documentation — was forced to return to its point of origin two hours later.
Angry passengers reportedly made a scene and demanded to be allowed to enter Taiwan, saying they had paid for their tour package and should be allowed in.
This was Xiamen Airway’s first time bringing a tour group to Taiwan on a charter flight. The agency believes the matter was an unintentional blunder by staff at the airport in Shengyang, the spokesman said.
To prevent similar problems in future, Hu said, the agency issued a letter stating protocol for Chinese passport holders entering Taiwan and urged all airlines to strictly adhere to the rules to protect the rights of their customers and to avoid fines.
Article 82 of the Immigration Act (出國及移民法) stipulates that pilots, ship captains or transportation operators will be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$100,000 for each person they bring to Taiwan without the proper paperwork.
Xiamen Airlines was slapped with a NT$1.85 million (US$55,000) fine for Saturday’s incident.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday asked the NIA to take responsibility for allowing two groups of Chinese tourists to enter the nation without entry permits last week.
DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said some Chinese tourists seemed to see Taiwan as part of China and defied Taiwan’s law and sovereignty.
He said that if the government continued to loosen restrictions on Chinese tourists entering the county, Taiwan would pay a high price.
Cheng said the NIA should take responsibility because it issued entry permits to two groups of Chinese tourists after they arrived at Kaohsiung International Airport on Wednesday of last week.
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