SAUDI ARABIA
Taiwanese eligible for e-visa
Taiwan is to be included in Saudi Arabia’s electronic travel authority (e-visa) program, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, touting the measure as facilitating tourism between the two nations. Saudi Arabia had earlier that day announced the e-visa measure, opening its doors to tourists from 49 countries and territories. Under the new program, Republic of China passport holders can apply for a travel permit to the Islamic nation on its e-visa Web site, on which applicants must complete a form and pay a fee with a credit card, the ministry said in a statement. The online system replies via e-mail if the application is approved, the ministry said, adding that Saudi Arabia has not yet announced when the e-visa program would be introduced. The program is only intended for tourists, so those needing a business visa must apply at the Saudi Arabian Trade Office in Taipei, the ministry said.
JAPAN
Taiwanese killed in crash
A Taiwanese tourist died in a head-on crash on Thursday in Okinawa, local news station Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting reported on Friday. The crash happened at about 3pm on Thursday on National Route 58 near Onna Village, a popular tourist resort in Okinawa. A Taiwanese woman was killed and her husband, the driver, was injured, the station said. The deceased woman, Kuo Chuan-hsiu (郭娟秀), was sitting in the back seat of a rented minivan when her husband, surnamed Tang (唐), crossed the centerline when making a right turn and hit another minivan head-on, it said. Kuo, 50, sustained head injuries and was pronounced dead an hour after arriving at a hospital, while Tang incurred a minor chest injury, it said. The couple’s 10-year-old son, also a passenger in the minivan, was uninjured, it added. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had contacted the family and would provide assistance.
IMMIGRATION
Vietnamese group detained
Forty-two illegal migrants from Vietnam on board a tour bus bound for Nantou were arrested in Tainan on Thursday last week, the National Immigration Agency. The arrests were made after a tip-off was received that a group of migrants were returning to the county after touring southern and southeastern Taiwan, the agency’s Tainan branch said. The group, all of whom have allegedly been residing illegally in Taiwan, had apparently booked a tour bus for a three-day, two-night trip to Taitung County and Kenting, the agency said. With the assistance of the freeway patrol, authorities identified and pulled over the tour bus at the Guanmiao Service Area on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), and arrested the Vietnamese, it said.
SOCIETY
Filipina wins second award
Filipina Melinda Babaran is to collect her second Taiwan Literature Award for Migrants today, after also winning last year. Babaran is to be presented with the Choice Award for a poem titled Kapirasong Papel, which she wrote in the voice of a man whose wife has been having an affair while working abroad. The inspiration came to her when she overheard a woman in her dormitory screaming on the telephone at her husband because he was having an affair while the woman was working in Taiwan, she said. Babaran works in a semiconductor factory in Taoyuan and has been in Taiwan for 12 years. This year, the judges received 680 submissions and prizes were awarded to eight winners in nine categories.
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
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