The government yesterday said it had received confirmation that Morocco resumed accepting tourism visa applications from Taiwanese passport holders last week, two months after abruptly suspending the process in July.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a staffer at its office in Tokyo called the Moroccan embassy in Japan on Friday, and was informed that the embassy had officially resumed accepting applications for Taiwanese travelers’ Visa Confirmation Letters (VCLs) beginning Monday last week.
However, as the Moroccan embassy has still not resumed VCL applications for non-tourism purposes, the ministry said it would not accept visa applications from Moroccan nationals until such restrictions are lifted.
Photo: REUTERS
The ministry’s statement was issued after a local travel agency announced over the weekend that the Moroccan embassy in Japan had told the agency it was resuming visa applications from Taiwanese nationals.
The embassy first suspended its VCL review process for Taiwanese travelers on July 23, but did not give a reason for the move.
Citing the principle of reciprocity, the ministry later announced that it would suspend processing visa applications from Moroccan nationals, effective from July 31, except for special projects approved by the government.
The ministry said at the time that the Moroccan government’s decision had seriously affected two-way exchanges, adding that Taiwanese passport holders can obtain a VCL only through the Moroccan embassy in Japan and are ineligible for a Moroccan e-visa.
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
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