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Five Taiwanese stuck
in India on status mix-up
CONFUSION: An Indian official had mistaken their
ROC passports as those of the PRC, for which New Delhi applies more stringent
regulations and reviews
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
Media reports said that five Taiwanese who work for companies in India were
denied permission to leave the country and have been awaiting approval of
temporary residence permits since February because they were mistaken for
Chinese citizens.
Pai Tsung-ching (白聰慶), a Taiwanese engineer, made an online post in which he
said his application for a temporary residence permit in the South Asian country
was referred to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs for review after his
nationality was mistaken for Chinese by India’s Foreigners Regional Registration
Office (FRRO).
Indian regulations require foreigners who plan to stay in the country for more
than 180 days to register with the FRRO in Bangalore or face a denial of their
requests for permission to exit, while People’s Republic of China (PRC) passport
holders are subject to a much stricter review by the Indian Ministry of Home
Affairs.
The mistake came from the nationality column in his passport, which reads
Republic of China (ROC), Pai said, adding that four other Taiwanese were also in
the same situation.
Pai left a message on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Facebook page last week
recounting his experiences and asked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA)
help so that they can return to Taiwan.
In Taipei, MOFA said yesterday that the Indian government plans to issue
instructions to local authorities next week to prevent a recurrence of the
mistake that has left the five Taiwanese stuck in India for more than four
months.
MOFA spokesman James Chang (章計平) said yesterday that the ministry has attended
to the cases and found that they were all isolated cases, as the problem had not
occurred before January of this year.
An immigration officer with the FRRO who was new to the position mistakenly
referred the cases to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs for review, as he was
not familiar with its immigration rules, Chang said.
New Delhi has promised that the mistake will not happen again and that it would
issue instructions to local governments to alleviate the confusion, he said.
The five Taiwanese should be able to return to Taiwan in one or two weeks, Chang
said.
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