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Thai prisoner program still in the works

A prisoner-exchange agreement with Thailand remains on the drawing board and requires more time to work out the details, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.

The ministry was responding to media reports that it has worked out guidelines for the long-talked-about proposed agreement, which would include parity between signatories, the stipulation that the offense must be a crime in both countries and prior consent of inmates before their transfer.

Ministry officials said the idea to sign a prisoner-exchange pact with Thailand dates back to when Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was minister of justice.

At that time, some Taiwanese imprisoned in Thailand expressed a desire to serve their time in Taiwan because they suffered unfair treatment due to a language barrier and a lack of legal resources, officials said.

The ministry then began to study how those prisoners could be allowed to return home to serve their terms, the officials said.

The ministry has been mulling the technical details for several years, including how many statutes would have to be revised and what issues should be negotiated with Thai authorities.

However, the officials said, no definite conclusions have been reached yet.

The issue was again spotlighted recently when the Control Yuan launched investigations into alleged human-rights violations against Taiwanese serving time abroad.

Ministry officials said the government will address the problems regarding Taiwanese prisoners in Thailand.

"We'll refer to the practices or formulas adopted by other countries in smoothing the way for a prisoner-exchange pact with Thailand," a ministry official said.

The absence of formal diplomatic ties has hindered the formation of an agreement, the official said, adding that the ministry is hopeful that Thailand will negotiate such a pact as early as possible on humanitarian grounds.

According to ministry statistics, more than 70 Taiwanese are in jail in Thailand, including 53 convicted of drug trafficking. There are also dozens of Thai nationals serving time in Taiwanese prisons.
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