Seventeen of the 148 Vietnamese tourists who disappeared shortly after arriving in Taiwan last week have been located, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday.
As of midnight on Thursday, 17 of the missing tourists, who arrived in four groups in Kaohsiung and Tainan on Friday last week and Sunday, were found, while the other 131 remained unaccounted for, the agency said in a statement.
The 17 were found in Chiayi, Nantou, Changhua and Hsinchu counties, in addition to Taoyuan and New Taipei City, the agency said, adding that initial investigations showed that they had left their tours to meet friends or relatives, or to look for a job.
Photo: CNA
A task force set up by the NIA and National Police Agency is investigating if crime syndicates, including traffickers, were behind the disappearances, the statement said.
The Vietnamese were visiting Taiwan under a government initiative launched in November 2015 that allows electronic visa application for tour groups of at least five people traveling on Indonesian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian or Indian passports.
Group tourists are eligible to make such applications as long as they are organized by “quality travel agencies” recognized by the Tourism Bureau or company-sponsored groups.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for a thorough review of the program under which more than 500 Vietnamese arriving on tourist visas have gone missing.
The Vietnamese National Administration of Tourism has suspended the license of International Holidays Trading Travel, the agency that handled the 148 tourists’ visa applications, and has begun investigating the case, Vietnamese media reported.
In related news, the Executive Yuan yesterday named National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) as the new NIA head and a takeover ceremony took place later in the day.
Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) in a statement praised the four-decade law enforcement veteran for his contributions to keeping society safe.
With Chiu in charge, the NIA would continue to safeguard the nation’s borders and security, respect all cultures and protect the rights of migrants, Hsu added.
The position was vacated by Jeff Yang (楊家駿) on Dec. 12, when he was transferred to the position of senior counselor at the NIA after allegedly misappropriating funds.
Yang has denied the allegations and is under investigation.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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