A group of 262 mainland Chinese, including illegal immigrants and fishermen, were repatriated from the Taiwan-controlled island group of Matsu (
A total of 416 Chinese have been repatriated in the past two days, with a group of 154 illegal immigrants having been returned on Thursday in the first repatriation since the inauguration of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in May.
According to Jan Jyh-horng (
Government statistics indicate that 1,930 illegal immigrants were in detention in Taiwan in August. As no repatriations had been conducted, the detention centers in Hsinchu (
Of those repatriated yesterday, 115 were fishermen caught fishing illegally in Taiwanese waters. The remaining 147 were illegal immigrants.
The fishermen were repatriated in a direct crossing from Matsu's Fuao (
The illegal immigrants, however, were ferried to the middle of the Taiwan Strait and transferred to a Chinese government boat supplied under an arrangement between the Red Cross Societies of Taiwan and China. The Red Cross is responsible for the repatriation of illegal immigrants according to the 1990 Kinmen Agreement (金門協議) between Taiwan and China which governs repatriation of illegal immigrants between the two sides.
MAC officials denied there was anything unusual in the use of a direct sailing to the mainland to repatriate the fishermen, saying the voyage had been approved as a "special case." Under current policy, direct links to China are normally prohibited.
Johnnason Liu (
"This special case will not affect the role of the Strait Exchange Foundation which represents Taiwan in interactions with China on issues of repatriation. The channel between the Strait Exchange Foundation and China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait remains unaffected," Liu said.
"China and Taiwan reached an agreement that the repatriation can take place before the Mid-Autumn Festival. We approved a direct sailing to get the illegal fishermen home for humanitarian reasons," said Jan.
"I hope both sides of the Taiwan Strait will expedite the repatriation of the more than 1,000 illegal immigrants currently in Taiwan and help to improve cross strait relations." Jan said.
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