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Take back immigrants: DPP

In the wake of an offer to allow Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan, a legislator yesterday said Beijing should show good will by taking back the 2,223 illegal Chinese immigrants currently detained here.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator and caucus whip, Peter Lin (林進興) yesterday said "the detention centers for Chinese immigrants are vastly overcrowded because the Chinese government has been unwilling to take them back."

He said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) should have asked Chinese leaders to repatriate the immigrants during their China visits.

He said if China really wants to show good will to the Taiwanese, it should help solve the problem as soon as possible.

Lin said according to the Immigration Office under the National Police Agency, three detention centers located in Hsinchu, Ilan and Matsu currently hold hundreds of Chinese immigrants. Detained within the facilities are 711 males and 1,512 females.

Lin said the immigrants are waiting for boats to take them back to China. They are waiting indefinitely, as the Chinese government has purposely delayed their repatriation.

The government spends a lot of money every year to care for the detainees, and this situation could potentially be made worse by an influx of Chinese tourists, who may abscond while visiting Taiwan, Lin said.

In addition, according to law enforcement officials, there are 480 Taiwanese criminals on the lam in China, including Wu Tse-yuan (伍澤元), former Pingtung county commissioner who was found guilty of corruption; Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), a former Kaohsiung City Council speaker found guilty of vote-buying in a council speakership election; and Eddie Liu (劉偉杰), a former employee of the prominent Taiwanese law firm Lee and Li Attorneys-at-Law, who embezzled NT$3 billion, Lin said.

According to Immigration Office of the National Police Agency, 38,617 Chinese people have traveled to Taiwan after the their government allowed tourists to come to here by application, in a trial period which began in 2002 and was discontinued in March.

Lin said National Security Bureau Deputy Director Wang Chin-wang (王進旺) told legislators that more than 70 Chinese tourists went missing after they came to Taiwan. Wang also raised the possibility of espionage being conducted by Chinese spies posing as tourists.

According to Lin, Wang said that easing the travel ban on Chinese tourists would have some impact on the nation's security.

Lin said the government should therefore not allow Chinese tourists to come to Taiwan.
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