Descendants of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops from northern Myanmar and Thailand showed their appreciation to those who helped them in their decade-long struggle for residency and citizenship at a luncheon yesterday.
“We would like to express our appreciation to government officials and everyone in Taiwan who offered help to the descendants of former army troops in Myanmar and Thailand,” Liu Hsiao-hua (劉小華), executive director of the Thailand-Myanmar Region Chinese Offspring Refugee Service Association, said at a luncheon yesterday in Taipei.
“We may take citizenship as something that comes naturally, but for them, it’s something they’ve been longing for all their lives,” Liu said.
A Burmese refugee student currently attending National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Lee Wen-chao (李文超), and his Taiwanese classmate Lu Kuan-ting (盧冠廷) made a short film detailing the lives of Myanmar refugees who live illegally in Taiwan, how many suffer from homesickness, work illegally, have to avoid police checkpoints and are forced to end relationships with boyfriends or girlfriends at home.
“These are all true events that Myanmar refugees have been through in Taiwan — including my own story,” Lee told reporters after screening the film.
In addition to the events seen in the film, Lee said there were also people whose bosses withhold their salaries because they know they are working illegally.
Many refugees are not able to meet all their medical needs because their illegal status means they do not qualify for National Health Insurance, Lee said.
Following the KMT’s defeat in the Chinese civil war 60 years ago, tens of thousands of soldiers moved across the Chinese border into Myanmar and Thailand to wait for the order to “retake the mainland.”
That order never came and they became trapped when the KMT regime fled to Taiwan and the governments of Myanmar and Thailand refused to grant them residency or citizenship, making them stateless.
Over the years, thousands of descendants of those soldiers came to Taiwan to attend university with forged or bought passports because there was a policy that if they could get to Taiwan, they would be granted citizenship.
Although that provision was canceled in 1999, descendants of former KMT soldiers who were not aware of the change continued to come, only to find themselves classified as illegal residents after they graduated.
Hundreds of such refugees from Myanmar and Thailand took to the streets in protest on July 3, 2008. That led to the revision of the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and the creation of a special regulation allowing more than 2,000 refugees from Myanmar and Thailand able to prove that they are descendants of former KMT soldiers to obtain residency.
Those who hold official residency status can apply to become naturalized citizens two years after the issuing of their residency, Liu said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS