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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
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