Lee Mai-ping (李美萍) came to Taiwan to study on Sept. 13, 2000, with the hope that, as a descendant of a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) soldier stranded in the border region between Thailand and Myanmar, she would be granted Taiwanese residency.
“We had heard that we could obtain residency after living in Taiwan for five years. But I found out after arriving that the regulation had been scrapped a long time ago,” she told the Taipei Times by telephone.
But she did not give up the hope of securing Taiwanese residency after she completed her studies.
She began her campaign in June 2007, trying to persuade lawmakers to help her and other descendants of KMT troops in a similar plight in Taiwan.
Her two-year fight for residency made progress when the Legislative Yuan passed a special bill on Jan. 12 granting residency to Tibetan refugees and the descendants of former KMT soldiers who entered Taiwan between May 21, 1999, and Dec. 31 last year for studies or technical training with the permission of the Ministry of Education or the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
The bill benefited some 2,000 descendants.
“After being granted residency, I can apply for job permits and be covered by National Health Insurance,” she said.
Although she will receive her residency soon, Lee still believes that Taiwan should establish a mechanism for people to seek asylum.
“There are still a number of KMT troop descendants in the border area between Thailand and Myanmar,” she said. “They are all looking forward to finding their roots in Taiwan.”
An asylum bill has been stalled for several years.
Documents the legislature received from the Executive Yuan on Dec. 5, 2007, showed that the nation had taken in refugees on several occasions since 1975. Residency was granted to around 3,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1975, another 6,000 refugees from Vietnam in 1976 and some 2,000 people from the Indochina Peninsula the same year.
In 2001, 140 Tibetans were granted residency under the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration before the current Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) took effect.
Around 800 descendants of former KMT troops who entered Taiwan with fake passports between May 20, 1999, and Dec. 26, 2007, were also granted one-year temporary Alien Residency Certificates (ARCs) after turning themselves in to officials from the Immigration Agency on July 15 and July 16 last year in Jhonghe (中和), Taipei County.
But these moves to protect refugees who previously lived in Taiwan without legal residency were special courtesies from the government; these people could not file for asylum status. Instead, they could only wait and hope the government would grand them residency one day.
Legislative records showed that a Cabinet-level human rights task force resolved in 2002 to push a draft asylum law. However, a draft was not submitted by the Cabinet to the Legislative Yuan until March 2007 — five years after the task force reached the resolution.
The bill, if passed, would allow any foreigner or person without nationality who fears returning to their native country because of ethnic, religious or political persecution to apply for asylum in Taiwan. Their spouses and children under the age of 20 would be allowed to seek asylum as well.
The bill would also require government representatives, experts and academics to conclude reviews of the applications within six months. The applicants should be granted temporary residency and enjoy basic living standards, legal consultation and medical care while their applications are pending review, the bill said, adding that the government would also be obliged to provide shelter for the applicants.
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