Legal experts and human rights advocates have criticized China’s judicial system as they seek to reverse a Spanish court’s ruling that 217 Taiwanese suspects be deported to China.
The human rights situation in China has drawn condemnation from around the globe and the international pressure has caused some nations to become more cautious over decisions to deport people to China, international law specialist Raymond Sung (宋承恩) said.
Non-governmental organization (NGO) the Spanish Association for Human Rights raised concern over the Spanish court’s decision in December last year to deport 219 Taiwanese arrested a year earlier over alleged involvement in telecom fraud that affected Chinese citizens.
In May, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights responded to an urgent appeal filed by the association in a statement calling on the Spanish authorities to review its order and suspend the deportations.
About a week before the office acted, the Spanish government deported two of the Taiwanese to China, prompting a protest from Taipei against Madrid for failing to observe the principles of nationality, proportionality and humanity.
The Spanish Ministry of Justice said the suspects “had Chinese nationality,” according to a BBC report.
Taiwan lost the legal battle over jurisdiction, as it had in previous cases, with the deportations carried out in deference to Beijing’s claim that it has sovereignty over Taiwan and those affected by the alleged crimes being mostly in China.
However, the case’s progress is a possible leverage point to alter such practice.
The suspects’ lawyers have lodged constitutional litigation against the Spanish court’s ruling and have submitted applications to the Spanish Office of Asylum and Refuge for the 217 remaining Taiwanese to be granted asylum, Taiwanese NGOs have said.
The moves have restrained Spain from deporting the detainees, said Covenants Watch chief executive officer Yibee Huang (黃怡碧), who along with Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu E-ling (邱伊翎) last month discussed the case with the suspects’ lawyers.
Huang said the linchpin of the defense’s argument is that if they are deported to China, they might face an unfair trial, as China’s legal proceedings are not up to par.
According to the lawyers, Taiwanese standing trial in China are disadvantaged compared with Chinese citizens, Huang said, adding that central to their argument is that Spain should observe non-refoulement, a principle that prohibits the transfer of people to a place where they would face a real risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
If non-refoulement were to be adopted by the Spanish Constitutional Court, it would require authorities there to assess the reliability of diplomatic assurance — that the transferees will be treated in accordance with international standards — that China has provided to the court in the deportation suit, Huang said.
Huang said that hopefully the Mainland Affairs Council would gain a better understanding of the treatment Taiwanese face in custody in China.
This would help the detainees in Spain and their lawyers with their defense against the deportation order, she said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS