The government is unable to establish a dedicated bureau to handle immigrant affairs due to a law restricting the number of bureau-level agencies, but in the interim such affairs would be handled by a preparatory office and dedicated task forces at the local level, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said yesterday.
The government can legally only have 70 bureau-level agencies, Liu told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview, adding that the ministry would have to wait until a slot becomes available before it can formally establish an immigrant resident affairs bureau.
Until that time, the ministry has established a preparatory office and supports the idea that immigrant residents should have the right to access media, she said.
Photo: Yu An-ting, Taipei Times
The government must send out the message that it is here to help those in need, she added.
Liu also urged local governments to set up immigrant affairs task forces, adding that it would be more efficient than having the National Immigration Agency or the Ministry of the Interior handle such affairs.
Liu disagreed with the naming of the Immigrant Resident Basic Act (新住民基本法) passed last month, stating that it was not as inclusive as the ministry intended, but still functioned per the ministry’s plans to uphold the rights of all immigrants legally entering Taiwan, regardless of whether they enter for work or as residents, before obtaining an identification card.
While the name “basic act” afforded the legislation a higher tier of the legislative hierarchy, it also clashes with other acts, such as the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), she said.
Meanwhile, commenting on President William Lai’s (賴清德) emphasis on building resilience, Liu said that different ministries have different tasks in the event of war.
Liu commended former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) efforts to shore up the nation’s infrastructure — gas, power, sugar, water and other state-owned businesses — but said that the public must be aware that war would not take the form of traditional warfare as seen in World War II.
Citing the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israeli invasion of Gaza as examples, Liu said part of modern wars would be about which side can successfully infiltrate and “lock down” the majority or the entirety of the opposing side’s access to the Internet, or bombard the opposing side with fake information.
This trend highlights the importance of maintaining digital and other critical infrastructure, she said, adding that the ministry would train personnel to ensure they are up to the task.
Liu also said that the ministry would train the public to be self-sufficient during war or natural disasters, as such skills would enable people to survive the initial shock.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
RSS