The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday issued “do’s and don’ts” guidelines for working holidays overseas, urging Taiwanese travelers to take out an insurance policy first before they leave home.
The ministry made the announcement in the wake of the return the previous day of a Taiwanese who was trapped in a crevice on Uluru — also known as Ayers Rock — in Australia’s Northern Territory for 27 hours before being rescued.
Yang Cheng-hsiao (楊成效), 27, was admitted to Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for treatment of multiple bone fractures to his face, chest, ribs, spine and limbs.
His family paid about NT$300,000 (US$9,660) in medical bills at Alice Springs Hospital in Australia, but still faces about NT$2 million in charges for rescue and aerial transport, in addition to follow-up medical treatment, which his mother said they could not afford.
The ministry said that people planning to go on working holidays should register with relevant authorities prior to their trip, keep in touch with their families, pay attention to safety at work sites, and obey the laws and regulations of the host countries.
The ministry listed seven things that holiday-workers should not do in foreign countries: work illegally, overstay their visas, engage in dangerous activities, drive above speed limits, drive under the influence of alcohol or when exhausted, and accept unknown packages or parcels.
Taiwan has holiday working programs with 13 countries.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods