Minister of the Interior Liao Liao-yi (廖了以) has promised to present a draft amendment to the Legislative Yuan in September which, if approved, would grant legal resident status to descendants of former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) army troops left in Myanmar and Thailand following the Chinese Civil War.
Liao made the pledge on Thursday after receiving representatives of 380 descendants of the soldiers who are studying in Taiwan. Liao met them after they staged a protest outside the Legislative Yuan and a sit-in at Liberty Square in Taipei earlier in the day to demand that the government recognize their legitimate status.
Saying that the legislature would go into recess on July 18, Liao added that the ministry planned to put forth an amendment to the Immigration Act in September when the next legislative session opens.
The descendants complained that, as they did not hold Taiwanese citizenship and some are staying in Taiwan illegally, they often worried about being arrested by police.
Liao said that the National Immigration Agency would issue temporary registration certificates to them on July 15 and July 16 to ensure their legal stay in Taiwan before the approval of the amendment.
He also promised to order the agency to map out measures to tackle relevant issues involving the descendants.
The protesters’ parents, along with thousands of KMT soldiers, were moved to Myanmar and Thailand after retreating from China following the KMT’s defeat at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
As the Myanmar and Thai governments refused to grant them residency or citizenship, some of the descendants chose to come to Taiwan with forged passports.
Despite having graduated from Taiwanese schools, some of them still have no Thai or Burmese citizenship, while becoming illegal immigrants to Taiwan.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
The government yesterday donated US$200,000 to the Philippines to support post-earthquake relief and recovery efforts, following a powerful magnitude 6.9 quake that struck Cebu Province late last month, killing at least 72 people and injuring 559 others. The donation was presented earlier yesterday by Representative to the Philippines Wallace Chow (周民淦) to Cherbett Maralit, deputy resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, at Taiwan’s representative office in Manila. In his remarks, Chow expressed concern for those affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck the central Philippines on the night of Sept. 30. "We sincerely hope for the earliest possible
RSS