The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday said that it would offer assistance to more than 200 Taiwanese detained in Spain on charges of fraud after they sought political asylum and were being allowed to stay in the country.
“The government respects all forms of self-relief measures and agencies will provide all possible assistance within their reach,” the council said in a statement after learning that the suspects were granted temporary permission to stay in Spain rather than being deported to China.
The heads of the organization they worked for reportedly hired local lawyers and human rights groups to help.
Spanish human rights advocates were asked to help the suspects seek political asylum and lodge constitutional litigation to ensure that they stay in Spain out of fear that Taiwanese suspects could face unjust trials in China.
The suspects were among 269 people — including 219 Taiwanese — accused of fraud after Spanish law enforcement officials made arrests at the end of 2016.
Two of the Taiwanese suspects were in May deported to China.
Huang Yi-be (黃怡碧), chief executive officer at Taipei-based Covenants Watch, an independent network that works to ensure that the government fulfills its international human rights obligations, said this was the first case of Taiwanese fraud suspects caught overseas potentially avoiding deportation to China through political asylum and constitutional litigation.
Although Spanish authorities have temporarily halted extradition proceedings, so far neither a Spanish court nor an administrative agency of Madrid’s has accepted the detainees’ application for political asylum or constitutional litigation, Huang said.
Raymond Sung (宋承恩), an expert on international law, said concerns over human rights in China would help prevent the Taiwanese from being deported to China.
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