The government has granted legal residency to more than 100 Tibetans living illegally in the country on humanitarian grounds. Those who wish to gain citizenship may do so after three years.
"Congratulations, as the authority concerned has given you all legal residency that may qualify you to be citizens in three years," KMT lawmaker Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said to 113 Tibetans during a news conference yesterday.
On Aug. 28, the Bureau of Immigration decided to issue them legal papers at the instruction of an inter-ministerial task force, making then no longer stateless.
Chen, who has lobbied hard over the last two and half years for the government to acknowledge their status as refugees, described the development as the proudest achievement of his term.
"From this point on, you don't have to fear being caught by the police," the lawmaker said. "I hope no one will enter the country the way you did in the future, though," Chen said.
Almost all of the immigrants arrived in Taiwan on bogus passports.
"Stateless, they cannot travel overseas by any other means," said Chueh-An-Tsering (
Some of the Tibetans were born to families who followed the Dalai Lama to India after a failed uprising against the Chinese regime in 1959. Others came to Taiwan to escape economic hardship in Tibet, according to the commission.
The Indian government, while willing to allow the Tibetans to establish a government-in-exile in the city of Dharmsala, has not granted them citizenship.
Chang Chi (
As illegal immigrants, the Tibetans had difficulty finding jobs and making ends meet.
Ngawang Konchok, 28, who came to Taiwan in July 1998, said he had to depend on friends to survive over the last three years.
"Without legal status, I could only work menial part-time jobs and had to move a lot," he said, adding that the country's freedom and democracy had attracted him.
Nima Yongco, 28, who gave birth to a baby eight months ago, dubbed the newly acquired residency as an end to a three-year-long nightmare.
"You cannot imagine the hardship I've gone through in the past years. Several times I almost packed my belongings and headed home," she said.
Yongco, a Nepalese Tibetan, said she and her husband purchased fake passports in December 1998 and flew to Taiwan in the pursuit of a better life.
"The thought that we'll be thrown into prison upon our return has prevented us from making any reckless moves," she said.
Over the years, the Tibetans' lack of legal status has proved a headache for law enforcers as well.
"The authorities just don't know how to deal with them," said Chang. "Stateless, they cannot be deported."
Terzen Losel, 29, who entered Taiwan in February 1998, said he was twice caught by police. "With the help of lawmaker Chen and friends, I was able to regain my freedom."
As a makeshift measure, a notice was issued to all police stations nationwide, asking them not to detain the Tibetans pending a final decision by the special task force.
To secure their permanent freedom, the KMT's Chen wrote the president a letter last October pressing him to pardon all the Tibetans. The legislator held that Tibetans are internationally recognized refugees and that the government should treat them as such.
Chueh-An-Tsering said the amnesty marked the first and last of its kind, adding his commission would step up an information campaign to discourage illegal entry from the region.
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