Local lawyers yesterday said at a legislative hearing that Article 36 of the Immigration Law does not accord with basic human rights and urged the government to amend it.
According to Article 36, a foreigner is to be temporarily detained at the National Police Administration's (NPA) Sanhsia Alien Detention Center, when the arrestee is waiting to be expelled by the government, is an illegal immigrant, is wanted for a foreign government or when the authorities have cause.
The Sanhsia center is the only detention center for aliens who do not hold Chinese citizenship.
Article 36 also regulates that the minimum period for detention is 15 days, but that the "authorities" may extend the detention period for another 15 days when deemed necessary.
However, it does not clearly define "authorities," nor does it say how many times the authorities are allowed to extend the detention period of a foreigner, nor does it give credit for time served before a sentence is handed down. If not convicted, a foreign detainee will not be compensated.
Also, the NPA, a judge or a prosecutor can decide to detain a foreigner whenever they believe it is necessary.
"One of my foreign clients was jailed for 19 months. However, his verdict ended up with only nine months in jail but nobody made it up to him. They didn't even apologize," said Wellington Koo (顧立雄), another lawyer from the Taipei Bar Association.
By request of the Judicial Reform Foundation, DPP Lawmaker Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠) held a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning to discuss the matter. Lawyer Katharine Chang (張若雯) cited a case that she handled in the beginning of this year to emphasize how current regulations can violate foreigners' rights.
Chang served as private counsel for Russian Chirine Konstantin. Konstantin was arrested by a Chungshan Precinct police officer on Oct. 20 last year for what is called a "morality offense" under Taiwanese law.
After being interviewed by prosecutors, Konstantin was immediately sent to the detention center without a court order until Nov. 4, at which time Konstantin received a detention order.
"I did not realize how serious the problem was until I accepted this case," Chang said.
Konstantin was sentenced to three months in prison on Feb. 18 or an NT$90,000 fine.
Chang said that she appealed to the NPA on behalf of Konstantin for being illegally detained. The NPA granted her appeal and agreed to release Konstantin on bail on March 5. However, the detention center did not acquiesce to the order.
"They simply told me that they did not receive the order from the NPA," Chang said.
On March 13, a judge from the Panchiao District Court called the detention center and ordered them to release Konstantin.
He then paid the fine and left the detention center. On March 29, he left Taiwan.
"I was surprised that a phone call from a judge worked a lot better than an official order from the NPA," Chang said.
Yu Po-hsiang (尤伯祥), a lawyer who is also an executive member of the Judicial Reform Foundation, said that what happened to Konstantin was shameful.
"It seems to me that our authorities did not realize that Konstantin's detention was a violation of human rights. It is pathetic," Yu said.
"From a law-enforcement point of view, I can understand that they would want to keep an alien behind bars while they sort through a case [before sending it to the courts], but they do not realize that it is wrong," he added.
RSS