“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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