An independent legislator yesterday blasted the government over its treatment of relocated leprosy patients from the Happy Life Sanatorium, drawing a defense from a health official.
The criticism follows on the heels of a UN statement on July 20 which said that the eviction of the patients may have violated their internationally recognized rights to health and adequate housing.
Originally built in Sinjhuang (
PHOTO: AP
At a press conference yesterday, legislator May Chin (高金素梅) said, "The abuse of the rights of residents at Happy Life Sanatorium should by no means be considered a less important issue than that of the Thai laborers," referring to controversy over mistreatment of foreign laborers after a group of them rioted in Kaohsiung last month.
Chin added that if the matter was not dealt with effectively by health officials and the central government, "it would strongly affect how the world views Taiwan, a country that claims to respect human rights, democracy and liberty."
Chin said that NT $1 billion (US$30 million) of taxpayers' money had been spent building new accommodations for the patients. However, Chin said, the provisions at the new location at Hui-long Hospital were far from sufficient for their needs.
"Do you think placing patients who have problems with all four limbs on the 4th floor, which they can only get to by scootering across the grounds and cramming themselves into lifts, is seeing to their needs?" Chin asked Deputy Health Minister Chen Tsai-Chin (陳再晉), who was also present at the press conference.
Chin suggested the new accommodations were built to serve the needs of Hui-Long hospital saying that, "If they were built for leprosy patients they would be bungalows in natural surroundings."
Although Chen insisted that Happy Life Sanatorium was separate from Hui-long Hospital, pictures were shown of medical prescriptions with "Hui-long Hospital" clearly printed on it. When asked why the new accommodation's name was so important, a member of the Youth Happy Life Sanatorium Society said that "it was related to what purposes the funds meant for the new housing were being used for."
Asked why the Happy Life Sanatorium was now commonly being referred to as Hui-long hospital, Chen said that he didn't have to explain "what didn't exist."
During the press conference, Chin also raised the question of why patients didn't receive the entire NT$12,750 that the government gives to the leprosy patients each month, but rather received only NT$7,750.
Chen stressed that, "It was not a matter of them not receiving the whole sum but a matter of health officials only being allowed to give out NT$7,750."
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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