Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and civic groups yesterday called for the passage of an act that would guarantee residency for refugees.
Refugees arrive in Taiwan from China, Hong Kong, Tibet, Syria, Turkey and other nations every year, but many are deported or stay illegally due to the lack of a legal basis to accept refugees, Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) told a news conference to mark World Refugee Day.
Earlier this year, the government deported six Kurdish people back to Syria and sent an Iranian mother and her son to back to Nauru against medical advice, she said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Association for Human Rights
The deportations contravened the non-refoulement principle and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates that no one should be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, she said.
While laws on refugees are urgently needed, the Legislative Yuan has been stalling refugee bills since the DPP proposed the first draft in 2005, she said.
Although the bill was listed as a priority in 2008, it did not clear a first reading until 2016 and has since made no progress, she said.
“We are very worried that if the bill does not pass, the legislation would go back to square one after the legislature is reshuffled by the general election in January next year,” Chiu said.
Amnesty International Taiwan deputy secretary-general Annie Huang (黃尚卿) said that there are an estimated 25 million refugees worldwide.
All nations, especially those with stronger economies, are responsible for helping refugees, she said.
“The real problem is not with the refugees, but countries that caused them to leave home and countries that cannot see their value,” Huang said.
Turkish national Yavuz Avci, who moved to Taiwan in 1993, said that he has been unable to obtain Republic of China citizenship following the Turkish coup in 2016.
The Turkish Trade Office in Taipei would not provide the paperwork he needs for naturalization and even took his passport, he said.
“I work in international business, but now without a passport where can I go?” he asked.
While he was able to obtain marriage-based residency, he has more than 20 friends who are not as lucky, he said.
Many of them can speak Chinese and are very talented, he said, adding that he hopes a refugee bill would be passed soon.
DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) said that the main reason behind the bill’s slow progress is the common misconception that refugees burden the economy.
“We must keep educating people so that refugees would no longer be stigmatized. When we achieve that, the bill should be expected to pass,” she said.
More Hong Kongers are expected to seek political asylum in Taiwan, DPP Legislator Chen Man-li (陳曼麗) said.
In a resolution passed on Monday, the legislature urged the government to provide assistance to Hong Kongers whose freedom and safety have been threatened due to political reasons, she said.
She and other legislators would work hard to promote the refugee bill, she added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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
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
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS