Because of the ongoing instability in Thailand, where international airports have been blockaded by protesters, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday announced that employers would be able to extend the period of their Approval Letter for the Employment of Foreign Labor if their laborer’s arrival in Taiwan had been delayed because of flight cancelations.
The council said this would apply to all employers of foreign laborers who had not arrived in Taiwan to start work because of flights being canceled in the wake of the protests.
The employee or employer must obtain proof of purchase of a flight ticket and proof that the flight was canceled from the airline company. The application for an extension should be filed 30 days before the date of expiration of the original approval and the approved period can be extended for as much as three months.
Meanwhile, in related developments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that two of the nation’s air carriers were to bring home Taiwanese who have been stranded in Thailand because of the occupation of Bangkok’s two airports.
“We have coordinated with China Airlines and EVA Airways to help bring our people back,” deputy ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.
He said about 500 people were stranded in Bangkok and that they would be transferred to airports outside Bangkok from where the two airlines would schedule flights to return them to Taiwan.
Around 1,500 other Taiwanese have already been taken to other Thai airports and were waiting to return home, officials at the Tourism Bureau said.
China Airlines dispatched an additional flight to Chiang Mai International Airport in northern Thailand yesterday to bring 313 stranded Taiwanese home, the airline said in a statement.
In addition to EVA, Thai Airways International has also agreed to help evacuate the Taiwanese tourists stranded in Thailand, Chang said.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
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