The descendants of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops left behind in Myanmar and Thailand can apply for an overseas compatriot permit starting next week, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, students from Thailand and Myanmar who were recruited by the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Commission (OCAC) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) between May 20, 1999, and Dec. 26 last year to study in Taiwan will be allowed to go to the Jhonghe City Hall in Taipei County to apply for a one-year permit that would enable them to have legal status while in Taiwan, NIA Spokesman Steve Wu (吳學燕) said.
“We are all extremely happy and moved by the decision. The government has finally heard our voice. It proves that all these struggles were not in vain,” said Lee Mei-ping (李美萍), referring to the 400-strong protest in front of the Legislative Yuan last week.
Lee is one of the thousands of students recruited in the last few years from Chinese refugee communities in Myanmar and Thailand.
She said they were all told the same story — just come to Taiwan by using whatever means you can and the government will take care of you.
Following their “Taiwanese dream,” many students and their families went into debt to obtain counterfeit passports.
“But by the time we got here, we had become criminals,” Lee said.
These students and their families back home are often dubbed as the “orphans of the international community” because they have not been recognized as citizens by any government.
Their parents fought for the KMT during the Chinese Civil War more than 60 years ago, but when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) retreated to Taiwan, he ordered these forces to stay behind on the border of Myanmar and Thailand in case the KMT had a chance to turn the tide.
Chiang and the KMT never honored their promises and the soldiers were forced to stay in countries where they were not welcome.
Until now, the offspring of these soldiers do not enjoy legal status in their respective countries and the Taiwanese government also does not view them as citizens.
Lee said an estimate of 380 students will apply for the permit on Tuesday and 400 more will do so the following day.
The relaxed policy requires all those who entered Taiwan through illegal means to turn themselves in before they can obtain a temporary permit.
NIA said the permit is only good for one year and it does not allow the holders to sign up for the national health insurance plan.
The agency, however, vowed to push through an amendment in the next legislative session to address the welfare of these students.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing