Troubles faced by the National Immigration Agency in deporting a Spanish fugitive this month highlight the challenges posed by Taiwan’s exclusion from Interpol.
Salvador Alejandro Llinas Onate is wanted in Spain and Italy for allegedly selling cars he did not own from a rental car company he ran in Trento, Italy, in 2019. Llinas Onate was initially deported to Singapore on Saturday last week, but was denied entry on the grounds that he is wanted by Interpol, an agency official said. He was finally deported to an undisclosed European country on Sunday.
The agency has not commented on whether it knew about Llinas Onate’s fugitive status when he was granted permanent resident status in 2021 after entering Taiwan on a dependent visa. He had been living in the country with his Taiwanese wife and children.
It is unlikely that the agency would have known about Llinas Onate’s fugitive status, and even if it had channels through which to obtain such information, would not likely have sought to do so for what would appear to be a routine residency application based on a marriage with a Taiwanese national.
If Taiwan were a member of Interpol, it would receive regular updates on fugitives, which would be shared with customs and immigration officials to screen all entries into the country. Having such information would not only benefit Taiwan, but also countries from which fugitives would flee. Knowing they would be caught at Taiwan’s borders, and potentially face extradition, would be a deterrent for criminals who would otherwise see Taiwan as a safe haven.
Currently, deportation or extradition of fugitives is handled on a case-by-case basis, and requires coordination between various parties. For example, in 2004, W.A. Kimmick, 36, was extradited to the US to stand trial for the murder of his wife, and was in 2005 sentenced to 14 years in prison. Kimmick was arrested after turning himself in to a precinct in Pingtung County, and was escorted to the US by FBI agents who came to Taiwan to take custody of him. In 2009, Mark Lee Kaczmarczyk was extradited to the US to be tried in San Diego for child molestation, while a Texan man who gained notoriety after publishing details online for making handguns using a 3D printer was extradited and later charged for having sex with a minor.
These cases highlight Taiwan-US cooperation on combating crime — something facilitated by the bilateral Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters — but Taiwan’s precarious diplomatic position means it needs separate bilateral agreements with every country it cooperates with on legal matters. For example, Taiwan signed a judicial agreement with Poland in 2019, and another with Germany last year.
Multiple agreements add complexity and slow down cross-border law enforcement efforts. Agreements are also generally invoked in response to the discovery of a fugitive already in Taiwan, rather than being a preventive measure that stops criminals from crossing the border in the first place. A person who has committed murder, rape, child molestation or some other heinous crime could live unnoticed in Taiwan for many years, working in the country and putting its residents at risk.
After his arrest in 2009, Kaczmarczyk told Taiwanese officials that he “likes Taiwan and would like to stay here to run a daycare center.” It goes without saying that the implications if Kaczmarczyk had not been caught would be terrifying for parents in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s exclusion from Interpol endangers people in Taiwan and delays justice for victims elsewhere. Taiwan should make strides to communicate these risks to Interpol president Ahmed Naser al-Raisi and the Interpol General Assembly, and urge friends in the US and the EU to help Taiwan make its case on the matter. While the absence of Taiwan’s participation is a detriment to all major international organizations, excluding its contributions from global crime-fighting efforts is particularly egregious.
Public health is one of Taiwan’s greatest strengths. Its National Health Insurance was already one of the best single-payer systems in the world, ensuring that everyone has coverage while staying nimble in the face of financial challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic was a chance for the world to see Taiwan’s full public health apparatus at work. Officials caught wind of a strange virus circulating in China and jumped to screen and then stem the flow of travelers before the word “coronavirus” even made headlines. It was one of the only countries in the world to escape widespread transmission before vaccines were distributed,
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Oct. 12 announced that it would consider adopting further measures in response to Taiwan’s trade barriers on certain goods from China, based on the findings of an investigation it launched late last year. The measures could include tariffs or other forms of economic pressure. The announcement is yet another political move by Beijing that is more declarative than substantive. The timing was not coincidental, as it came shortly after President William Lai (賴清德) delivered his first Double Ten National Day speech after taking office on May 20, which was moderate on the cross-strait relationship,
On Monday morning last week, many Chinese investors woke up anticipating a raft of new stimulus measures to save the Chinese economy during an official Chinese Communist Party (CCP) news conference. Instead, by about 5am the CCP had launched military exercises surrounding Taiwan. State media announced that China would “completely reunify” Taiwan with its “ancestral homeland.” The refurbished Liaoning aircraft carrier, which had only days prior returned to its home berth at Yuchi Naval Base in China’s Shandong Province, was rushed back out to sea to traverse the Bashi Channel separating Taiwan and the Philippines to take its position for the exercises. The
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Oct. 9 made a rebuttal to President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day gala speech, which was given on Oct. 5, saying that “the Republic of China [ROC] is the motherland of Taiwanese” and “every Taiwanese citizen is a Taiwanese, and also a descendant of the [mythological Chinese] Yan (炎帝) and Yellow emperors (黃帝).” That is just plain nonsense. Through the most basic understanding of history, Chu’s hometown in Taoyuan’s Bade Township (八德) was originally the Ketagalan settlement of Siaoli (霄裡). At the beginning of the reign of the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong