Despite a lack of regulations on the matter, the government was likely to provide state compensation to the families of the 20 Chinese tourists who perished when torrential rains brought by Typhoon Megi triggered landslides on Suhua Highway last month. Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said yesterday. He said the ministry had concluded that Chinese tourists could apply for state compensation after it studied the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法) and the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).
“Despite the lack of regulations in the [two] laws on state compensation for people from the mainland, in the case of accidents in Taiwan, we believe they [Chinese] have the right to claim state compensation,” Tseng told a press conference following the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Article 15 of the State Compensation Act stipulates that provisions of the Act can be applicable to a foreign claimant only when Taiwanese enjoy the same rights in that country in accordance with a treaty, law or the customs of the country in question.
PHOTO: CNA
Tseng said the article applied to Chinese as the Statute Governing the Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area does not stipulate an exemption for Chinese citizens from the State Compensation Act.
If families of the 20 Chinese tourists apply for compensation, the government would review the applications in line with the principle of reciprocity, Tseng said.
Tseng said the ministry was trying to determine whether the Chinese government had ever compensated Taiwanese victims of accidents.
PHOTO: CNA
The act stipulates that the state is liable for damage arising from the intent or negligence of any government employee that infringes upon the freedom or right of any person. The same applies when the damage results from the omission of any government employee, it says.
Tseng said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications was in charge of determining whether the Act applied to this particular case.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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