Tibetan refugees yesterday threatened to stage another sit-in if the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) refused to grant them residency permits as promised.
Tibetan Welfare Association chairman Jamga (蔣卡) said that although the government had promised to give his compatriots legal residency status, it was now tightening application criteria, making it difficult for them to obtain permits.
“We were overjoyed when the Immigration Act [入出國及移民法)] was amended before the Lunar New Year, making it possible for us to get permits, and President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] also said that he cared about us and would help us,” Jamga told reporters.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“However, after several explanatory meetings, more and more of us have been disqualified from obtaining permits for various reasons. We don’t know how many people will be granted residency in the end and feel cheated by the government,” he said.
Over 100 Tibetan refugees without legal status staged a sit-in demonstration at Liberty Square last December, asking the government to grant them asylum. The demonstration ended when the refugees received temporary residency permits in January.
Many of the Tibetan refugees crossed through the Himalayas to Nepal and India before arriving in Taiwan using forged Nepalese or Indian passports.
The amended law stipulates that the refugees must provide legal documents to prove their identity as Tibetans, Jamga said.
The document can be either the applicant’s birth certificate (or that of his/her parents), passport, Indian Identity Certificate (IC, issued by the Indian government to stateless refugees) or their Independent Book (commonly known as the Green Book, a document proving they pay taxes to the Tibetan government in exile in India), Jamga said.
“But while constantly moving, many of us have lost our documents or never had such documents [to begin with],” he said.
In addition, Jamga said that while National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials had told them in their first meeting that holders of Indian ICs would get priority, in the third meeting officials said those whose Indian ICs were still valid would be repatriated to India immediately.
“This terrifies us; if we are sent back, we may face imprisonment or even execution,” he said.
Even without being repatriated, without legal residency the refugees have no right to work, said Awansangdan, another Tibetan.
“We are now having difficulty buying food and paying rent. We have relied on donations from our Taiwanese friends, but we are at the end of our resources. We are pleading for the government to give us residency,” he said.
In response, MTAC Secretary-General Chien Shih-yin (錢世英) said that the priority was to help the refugees stay in Taiwan legally, but it would take time.
“The commission has employed very loose criteria for residency application ... I understand that [the refugees] have been through a lot, but the commission wants them to attain residency status legally so they must provide something [as opposed to verbal promises] to prove their identities,” Chien said.
Commission staffers have been working overtime since the Lunar New Year to help the refugees, Chien said, but the whole process will take a few months.
“There will be no immediate repatriations,” Chien said. “There may have been misunderstandings between the refugees and frontline staff.”
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to