A Taiwanese consulate official in Thailand asked a Taiwanese victim of the tsunami in Phuket to pay 1,500 Baht (NT$1,212) for a new passport after she lost everything in the disaster, a legislator said yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a legislative question-and-answer session that the consular official appeared to had been unmoved by the tragedy the Taiwanese woman lived through. She blasted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for treating Taiwanese victims of the tsunami in a shameful manner.
"The woman lost everything in the tsunami and stayed in a hospital. She did not have money to pay for the passport and this consular official asked her to sign a note to borrow 1,500 Baht from the government," Hsiao told Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
The consular official kept calling the woman, who is married to a German, to return the 1,500 Baht, after she left Thailand.
"Is this reasonable? I felt so ashamed when I heard about her story. Is this official's heart made of cement?" Hsiao asked.
"The government donated US$50 million to countries affected by the tsunami but demanded a Taiwanese victim in the disaster pay 1,500 Baht for a new passport," she said.
Calling the consular official's behavior "a shame to the country," Hsiao said the victim was in Phuket, where many countries' consular officials distributed free passports to their citizens after all their possessions were washed away by the tidal wave.
The official "has damaged the image of our nation," Hsiao said.
Chen admitted that the consular official's treatment of the woman was a shame.
"The government should help its people when they encounter crises abroad. This should not have happened. In such a case, we should have done our best to help the victim and asked her whether she needed cash," Chen said.
"We are looking into the case," an unnamed official said.
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