The government plans to launch a new airport security system next year to step up border security as it is tries to join the US’ visa-waiver program.
The new airport security system, combined with other recent security changes, will help with criminal investigations, as well as make it a more -appealing -candidate for visa-free access to countries such as the US, National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said.
An advanced passenger processing system, scheduled to begin testing next year, will allow airlines to access real-time information about passengers to prevent boarding passes being issued to suspicious passengers. The agency will cooperate with domestic airlines over the use of the system before it extends its cooperation to foreign airlines, Hsieh said.
Taiwan is one of the first countries in the Asia-Pacific region to adopt the system, he said, adding that Australia and South Korea have done so already.
In August, the agency began operation of an advanced passenger information system that allows immigration officers to receive passenger information from airlines after check-in procedures are completed so that suspicious travelers can be tracked.
Hsieh said a lot of positive feedback has been received about efforts to tighten border security.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) recently said Taiwan is expected to be included in the US’ visa-waiver program candidate list by the end of the year.
Over the past three years, the number of countries or regions that have accepted Taiwan into their visa-waiver programs has risen from 54 to 124.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS