Chinese asylum seeker Yan Kefen (顏克芬), who had been stuck in limbo at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport for more than seven months, on Sunday arrived in Canada, Radio Free Asia said on Facebook yesterday.
Using his People’s Republic of China passport, Yan on Saturday night departed from the airport and reached Ottawa after transiting through Toronto the next day, the broadcaster said.
Yan and another Chinese national, Liu Xinglian (劉興聯), on Sept. 27 last year arrived at the airport on a flight from Thailand on their way to Beijing, but did not board their scheduled flight to China later that day.
Photo: CNA
Instead, they filed for asylum with local authorities using refugee certificates issued by the UN.
However, Taiwan does not yet have an adequate mechanism to deal with refugee claims, the Mainland Affairs Council said.
Without travel documents that would allow them to enter the nation through normal channels, the two men had to stay in a restricted area at the airport.
The two on Jan. 30 exited Taiwan briefly for “professional exchanges” by flying to an undisclosed country, but returned later that day.
Upon arriving in Ottawa, Yan told the broadcaster that he was grateful to the Taiwanese and Canadian governments, as well as all the people and non-governmental organizations that have helped him.
New School For Democracy chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元), a guarantor for the two Chinese asylum seekers, confirmed the news, saying that Yan left for Canada after receiving approval for professional immigration to the country.
Liu, 64, who has diabetes and hypertension, must stay in Taiwan for medical treatment, Tseng said.
Council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday declined to comment on the two Chinese asylum seekers.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS