By Jimmy Chuang
STAFF REPORTER
May 26: A group of Tibetans yesterday appealed to the Executive Yuan to help fellow Tibetans stranded in India return to Taiwan.
“We are not human traffickers,” Tibetan Welfare Association deputy chairman Jiamay Kalsang said.
“We just hope that the government would help our fellow Tibetans return to Taiwan, let them finish their college education or get together with their families here,” Kalsang said.
Kalsang and the other Tibetans wore Tibetan-style clothing as they made their appeal outside the Executive Yuan yesterday morning.
According to Kalsang, two Tibetan college students who have permanent residency here are stuck in India because their visas to return to Taiwan were canceled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tibetans usually enter Taiwan with “identity certificates” issued by the Indian government, Kalsang said.
They therefore have to apply for new visas even if they are permanent residents of Taiwan.
When the expiration date of such certificates is within three years, there is a greater chance that their applications for Taiwanese visas will be rejected or their current visas will be suspended, Kalsang said.
He declined, however, to give more information when asked for more background about the exact visa situation of the two stranded students.
Noting that Premier Chang Chun-hsiung had helped 135 Tibetan refugees to win permanent residency in Taiwan when he first became the premier in 2000, Kalsang said it was an act that his group much appreciated.
But the past two or three years, the foreign ministry began to apply strict measures against Tibetans, Kelsang said. He said that many of their visas were suspended so they would not be able to return to Taiwan.
The group was stopped by the police at the front gate of the Executive Yuan and a minor scuffle broke out.
After a 20-minute protest at the front gate of the Executive Yuan, a Cabinet section chief came out and accepted the group’s petition.
