NIA maintains vigilant stance on tourists from China: Hsieh

The tourist group arrived on a China-based airline flight Tuesday at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport without visas and were detained by immigration authorities.

They at first refused to return home on the original plane, and asked the immigration authorities to bend the rules and allow entry into Taiwan.

But after several hours of negotiation they were still sent home on the same plane Tuesday night, the Central News Agency reported.

Hsieh Li-kung, head of the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday said his office will not compromise national security by giving in to Chinese tourists' unreasonable demands.

He warned airline companies and travel agencies against breaking the regulations, stressing that NIA will impose fines on violators and strictly adhere to the regulations by sending home visitors who do not have visas.

But travel agencies are complaining that NIA is processing visas for China tourists too slowly.

Representatives from Taiwan's tourism associations Friday called on the NIA, asking it to increase the daily quota for processing China visas.

They said as many as 20 groups of almost 800 Chinese tourists will be unable to enter Taiwan beginning yesterday because they have yet to obtain visas.

The slow visa processing is inflicting huge losses on the travel agencies, the representatives said.

But NIA officials pointed out that the agency has worked out a daily quota of 4,311 visas for China tourists, the United Daily News reported.

On Friday the NIA received 2,833 more visa applications over the quota, and the agency will only start processing the extras tomorrow, the paper cited the officials as saying. Hsieh said it usually takes five days to process a visa for Chinese tourists, and it may still need three days for urgent cases.

The NIA needs at least three days to conduct background checks due to national security concerns, he said.

But the NIA will meet with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Tourism Bureau and industry players tomorrow to see if there are ways to improve the visa processing.

Taiwan last year opened its doors to Chinese tourists.

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