Tibet supporters and human rights groups yesterday urged the government to amend the Immigration Act (出入國及移民法) and pass an asylum bill to grant legal status to Tibetans and other international refugees.
“The government said that it will issue temporary residency to the Tibetans [in the group on Liberty Square in Taipei], but it’s not the final solution to their problems as temporary residency does not allow them to work,” Taiwan Friends of Tibet vice-chairman Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) told a press conference at Liberty Square.
More than 100 Tibetans living in Taiwan without legal status have been staging a sit-in demonstration on the square since Sept. 9, pleading with the government to grant them asylum.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, AP
Many of them had made the dangerous crossing through the Himalayas into Nepal before coming to Taiwan on forged Nepalese or Indian passports.
After a meeting with Tibetan and human rights activists on Monday, the government said it would likely issue temporary residency permits to the Tibetans and help them find shelter so that they could at least live in the country legally.
The activists, however, don’t think the government has gone far enough.
“The Tibetan pandas enjoyed a high-profile warm welcome, while the Tibetan refugees were left aside — this is not good for Taiwan’s international image,” Yang said.
China’s Wolong National Nature Reserve, the major habitat for pandas, is in a part of Sichuan Province that was traditionally a Tibetan domain and was part of an independent Tibet before the Chinese invasion in 1959.
After the activists performed a short play to reenact segments of Tibetan history, some of the Tibetan protesters presented khatas — a traditional Tibetan scarf used to show welcome or respect to someone — to an activist wearing a panda costume to show that that they hoped to live happily together in Taiwan as they once did in Wolong.
“Our first choice is to have a refugee bill so that all international refugees could benefit from it,” Yang said.
“If not, we would settle for a revised Immigration Act that adds a special clause for the Tibetans here,” Yang said.
While the Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus and some individual Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have shown interest in helping the Tibetans, Yang said he hoped the issue could be resolved as soon as possible.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS