On August 4 mainland China's Hsin-hua News Agency released a report stating that 25 persons had died of suffocation in the hold of a boat due to Taiwan's "inhumane" methods of deporting illegal mainland immigrants back across the Taiwan Strait. This news caused shock-waves to reverberate through all sectors of society in Taiwan.
Local news media devoted much space to the issue, the Ministry of National Defense issued an explanation, members of the Legislative Yuan expressed concern, and the Control Yuan proposed organizing a fact-finding commission to visit the mainland.
These events were still very much alive when tragedy struck again on August 14. This time a collision occurred between an ROC naval escort vessel and a fishing boat carrying deportees, resulting in 21 persons dead or missing.
According to the ROC Ministry of National Defense, there has been a marked increase in the numbers of mainland Chinese illegal immigrants illicitly entering Taiwan since the lifting of Martial Law. Between September 1987 and August 20, 1990, a total of 11,448 illegal mainland immigrants were arrested, and 596 mainland fishing boats involved in transporting them were impounded. In other words an average of 318 illegal mainland immigrants and 16 mainland fishing boats were apprehended every month over the period.
Why are so many illegal mainland immigrants trying to enter Taiwan, when average wages on the mainland are only RMB200 per month, and the price for smuggling someone into Taiwan is between RMB3,000 and RMB7,000 per person? Is it as they say, purely for economic reasons?
The ROC military maintain a skeptical view. Taiwan Garrison Command C-in-C Chou Chung-nan believes that the huge influx of mainlanders seeking to enter Taiwan since the lifting of Martial Law gives cause for concern. After all, why is it that over 90% of these mainlanders set out from Pingtan, in Fukien province? Are they being sent over purposely by the Chinese Communists? Then again, many of the mainland fishing boats seized in the course of ferrying job-hunters have been found to be carrying contraband, including drugs, industrial explosives and firearms. According to Police Department figures, 94 people died in underworld shooting incidents in the whole of last year, of whom 89 were killed using either Red Star or Black Star pistols from mainland China.
When detainees were asked ther reason for coming to Taiwan, only 57% mentioned illegal mainland immigrants and 42% admitted to smuggling. Investigators have identified numerous loose ends in the testimony of many of the detainees, and suspect their motives in coming to Taiwan.
Although some people think the ROC military is being over-cautious and that the vast majority of illegal mainland immigrants are just coming here to find work, the majority do not deny that if further large influxes of mainland Chinese enter Taiwan there are bound to be social problems due to the local land and population situations, even if they do come simply to seek work.
How do they sneak into Taiwan? Defense sources indicate that most of them choose to cross the Taiwan Strait between March and September when the seas are at their calmest. In April, May and June this year an average of 19 illegal mainland immigrants were apprehended daily, a rise of more than 300% over the same period last year. One reason for the increase, the Defense Ministry says, may be this year's exceptionally calm weather, although a deliberate stepping up of Communist infiltration is not excluded either.
As many as 99% of all illegal mainland immigrants reach Taiwan by fishing boat. All those apprehended are repatriated to the mainland. Processing centers have been while awaiting repatriation. All such mainland Chinese caught by coastguard units or security organts anywhere in Taiwan are sent to these centers for processing.
New arrivals at the centers go through a routine procedure involving registration, physical examination, and being questioned on their motive in coming to Taiwan and their personal background, before settling into their accommodation.
Then their daily routine is as follows: reveille at 6 a.m.; breakfast at 7:30; classes from 8 to 11, consisting of lectures and videos on contemporary Taiwan; lunch at 11:30 followed by a siesta; classes again from 2 to 5:30; a bath and free activity from 6 to 9:30 p.m.; lights out at 10. "Apart from not being allowed outside, their accommodation and regime of life are very similar to that experienced in the army, if not better," says Chou Chung-nan.
The length of time detainees stay at the processing centre varies from three or four days to three or four months, depending on their motives in coming to Taiwan, prevailing weather conditions at sea, or the availability of a suitable repatriation boat. Chou Chung-nan points out that the entire process is open and there are no secrets to hide; if there are things that cannot be divulged, it is sure to be for excellent practical reasons.
For instance, those illegal mainland Chinese immigrants who are involved in smuggling need to be interrogated very carefully. If any details regarding the identities of those being questioned leak out, it could very possibly hinder the police in their investigation of the case. So the ROC military's standpoint is "Where it is at all possible to avoid making their identities public, then do so".
Garrison Command C-in-C Chou's statement illustrates the ROC government's dilemma with regard to mainland Chinese deportees. As Defense Minister Chen Li-an describes it, "We can't afford to be too lenient and give them kid-glove treatment, neither can we be too severe and heavy-handed." Taiwan should treat these people as compatriots rather than offenders, but at the same time they must be made to feel the game is not worth the candle, so that they won't want to come back another time.
So there is a fine balance to maintain, and political realities across the Taiwan Strait mean that Taiwan cannot send deportees back by ship directly. At present the military's method is for a pair of naval vessels to escort deportee-carrying mainland fishing boats halfway across the strait, and then let them make their own way back to coastal ports such as Pingtan or Amoy, which takes another seven or eight hours.
Deportees are not repatriated on the same vessel on which they entered Taiwan; crew members and the human cargo from several different boats are sent back together on a single vessel. The criticism has been advanced that these fishing boats are the illegal mainland immigrants' main means of support and represent their only capital, so that sending people back without their boat is tantamount to depriving them of their livelihood.
Chou Chung-nan counters that most of the fishing boats involved in ferrying illegal mainland immigrants are worn-out and decrepit. Not many of them would be capable of making the voyage home, so there is a practical reason behind the policy of sending whole batches of deportees back on the same boat. And if repatriating them on a different boat makes the illegal mainland immigrants feel they've lost out, then it helps dissuade them from trying again.
In the first incident, the Min P'ing 5540 set out from Aoti fishing harbour, Ilan, on July 21. According to mainland China's Hsinhua News Agency there were more than 70 persons aboard, travelling in two holds, with a crew of seven. The 26 persons who suffocated were boarded up in a small hold; six-inch nails "were hammered in this way and that, tightly sealing down the hatch, which was further weighted down with heavy timbers." One of these managed to stay alive by breathing through a tiny hole "the size of a pea."
This report contains numerous discrepancies. Most importantly, it is claimed the 26 people shut in the hold tried to smash open the hatch before they suffocated; but then why did the others just watch them die without releasing them, and promptly make themselves scarce once the ship docked at Pingtan? What became of the sole survivor? The incident took place on July 21; why did the Hsinhua News Agency wait another 12 days before reporting it?
The current method of repatriating illegal mainland immigrants has been in use for a number of years. As some immigrants have leaped overboard just as the ship was starting off in an attempt to return to shore, in order to avoid danger and difficulties only a few people are left on deck and the rest are placed inside the boat's holds. The holds are sealed with wooden battens, but with enough space left in between to shrust a hand through. The holds have never been sealed tight with nails "banged in this way and that" or weighted down with heavy timbers. Moreover, only three-inch nails are used to secure the holds; the six-inch nails mentined by the Hsinhwa News Agency are only found on mainland fishing boats.
According to ROC Ministry of National Defence records there were 76 people aboard the ship, namely a crew of 13 with another 63 persons placed in five holds; the Hsin-hua News Agency figures for crew and persons in the holds do not tally.
Once the news broke, Taiwan's news media did their best to track down the story, even sending reporters to the scene. According to a United Daily report from Pingtan on August 5, it was believed locally that the tragedy was due to a fight over ownership of the boat between groups from Pingtan and Foochow. A China Times report from Foochow on August 13 confirmed that relatives of some of the victims on the Min P'ing 5540, as well as other survivors of the tragedy, had filed homicide suits with the Foochow Public Security Bureau and Fukien Province Public Security Department accusing the boat's owner Lin Mao-hui, together with the rest of the crew of 13, of suffocating the 25 deportees in order to secure ownership of the boat.
In order to avoid any similar recurrence in future, the ROC government is actively reassessing its repatriation procedure. Deportees will no longer be sent back in mixed batches, nor sealed under fixed hatches. Repatriation is to be placed under Red Cross auspices, with the ROC military no longer in sole charge of the operation.
C.V. Chen, secretary-general of the ROC Red Cross Society, explains that the ROC government's original intention was that the ROC Red Cross should link up with mainland China's Red Cross to guarantee the safety of deportees. These could be carried aboard an ROC Red Cross chartered vessel to some outlying island, from whence they could be taken home by a mainland China Red Cross boat. However, arrangements have not yet been finalized due to apathy on the part of the mainland Chinese Red Cross. Negotiations are in progress between the Red Cross organizations on both sides, and if the mainland Red Cross still refuses to cooperate, mainland deportees will be transported en masse to Kinmen and repatriated from there on board their original fishing boats. "The ROC government will definitely ensure the safe passage of such fishing boats," Chen stresses.
Deportation methods apart, these unfortunate events have also drawn attention to the legal aspects of any reciprocal action across the Taiwan Strait, and there has been discussion of speeding up modifications to the ROC's National Security Law.
As C.V. Chen indicates, the greatest difficulties in deporting illegal mainland immigrants are not the technicalities of the method used, but the whole legal framework of repatriation. "Temperamentally we simply cannot treat them as having entered the country illegally," is how Chen summarizes the crux of the matter. ROC law makes no provision for dealing with mainland residents illicitly stealing into Taiwan.
David Wang, director of the Graduate Institute of Law at the Chinese Culture University, notes that the ROC criminal code lays down that foreigners entering Taiwan illegally may be expelled, and the National Security Law stipulates a maximum of three years imprisonment convertible to a fine for those entering or leaving Taiwan without permission. The problem is that mainland Chinese illegal immigrants are not foreign nationals, and aside from the penalties laid down in the National Security Law there is no legal basis for enforced repatriation. Currently, the Taiwan Garrison Command repatriates apprehended illegal mainland immigrants directly without prosecuting them before the courts on illegal entry charges, so as to avoid legal representations on their right to remain in Taiwan.
The Ministry of interior, in conjunction with all government agencies concerned, has drawn up draft amendments to the National Security Law, to include an additional clause stating "persons entering the country without permission may be directly expelled by agencies appointed by the Executive Yuan without regard to the initiation or conclusion of legal proceedings." If this draft legislation receives approval from the Legislative Yuan, the deportation procedure for mainland Chinese illegal immigrants will have a basis in law.
Deportation of mainland Chinese illegal immigrants is necessary for Taiwan's safety and security. But neither improving the safety of the deportation process, strengthening its legal basis, or even stepping up coastal defence really get to grips with the fundamental issue of stemming the tide of illegal mainland immigrants trying to enter Taiwan.
The basic issue--how to prevent illegal mainland immigrants sneaking into Taiwan again--is a question that even the mainland Chinese are probably asking. These illegal immigrants from mainland China have to raise money to pay for their passage on a boat and are even prepared to face the discomfort of the crossing and the dangers of being caught on their way into Taiwan. How high is the price they are willing to pay for a better life. The life of people on the mainland truly must be improved.
[Picture Caption]
All mainland deportees are secured in the holds of repatriation boats by wooden battens to prevent them leaping overboard and swimming back to Taiwan. The gaps between the battens are wide enough for deportees to thrust their hands through.
On August 12 media reporters were permitted to tour a holding centre for illegal mainland immigrants. Shown here is a roll-call of mainland deportees being taken prior to repatriation.
This illegal mainland Chinese immigrant from Pingtan is wearing clothes bought in Taiwan with wages earned here.
The holding centre for illegal immigrants before sending them back to the mainland.
Most mainland Chinese fishing boats are dilapidated and lacking in life-saving equipment.
As the repatriation boat prepares to leave, a mainlander takes one last chance to beg a cigarette from those on shore.
A naval escort vessel closely tails the repatriation boat as far as the midway Point in the Taiwan Strait.
On August 12 media reporters were permitted to tour a holding centre for illegal mainland immigrants. Shown here is a roll-call of mainland deportees being taken prior to repatriation.
This illegal mainland Chinese immigrant from Pingtan is wearing clothes bought in Taiwan with wages earned here.
The holding centre for illegal immigrants before sending them back to the mainland.
Most mainland Chinese fishing boats are dilapidated and lacking in life-saving equipment.
As the repatriation boat prepares to leave, a mainlander takes one last chance to beg a cigarette from those on shore.
A naval escort vessel closely tails the repatriation boat as far as the midway Point in the Taiwan Strait.
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