The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it has approved the visas of 19 Ukrainians wishing to visit relatives in Taiwan under a special waiver program launched last month.
Taiwan on March 11 launched the program offering certain Ukrainian nationals visas of between 30 days and six months to assist Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion.
About 4.5 million refugees have fled the invasion, the UN has said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The ministry as of yesterday has granted visa applications to 19 Ukrainian relatives of Taiwanese or foreigners with local residency, Bureau of Consular Affairs director-general Chou Chung-hsiung (周中興) said.
The applications were filed at Taiwan’s representative offices in Poland, Latvia, Turkey and other countries near Ukraine, he added.
An additional 47 Ukrainians have been granted business visas, Chou said.
More than 200 Ukrainians hold residency in Taiwan.
The government also said last month that it was considering allowing Ukrainian students and researchers to stay in Taiwan temporarily.
Academia Sinica launched a scholarship program for Ukrainian students and researchers last month.
Academia Sinica had as of April 16 approved 12 out of 165 Ukrainian scholarship applications for undergraduate, master’s and doctorate degrees.
Some of the students have arrived in Taiwan, the institute said.
Academia Sinica is also in the process of selecting 15 academics from among 42 applicants to study under the same program, it said.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
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