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MAC touts refugee law

A Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official yesterday said the Cabinet had finished drafting a new refugee law which would protect political refugees from China, Hong Kong and Macao seeking asylum in Taiwan.

MAC Vice Chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) made the remarks while attending a forum held by the Democratic Progressive Party's Department of Chinese Affairs to discuss cross-strait affairs.

In his speech, You said related departments under the Cabinet had finished draughting a refugee law which they had been working on since 2003.

Although Taiwan is not a founder of the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees established in 1951, Taiwan was concerned about issues regarding refugees and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that "everyone has the right to seek and enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution," You said.

"Therefore, the government has been aiming to provide asylum to political refugees and dedicated itself to the protection of human rights," he said. "I believe it is very progressive legislation."

You said that refugees from China, Hong Kong and Macao would be included under the draft refugee law.

"Once the legislation is passed by the legislature, Chinese people will be among the subjects who directly benefit from this law because of Taiwan's geopolitical relations with China," he said, without elaborating.

The draft of an article read out by You said that refugees qualified to apply for asylum in Taiwan are defined as: foreigners, people who have no nationality, and people who belong to certain social groups or hold specific political opinions providing legitimate reasons that prove that they cannot be protected by their own countries or cannot return to their own countries because of fear of persecution.
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