Universities plead for expedited passage of refugee act

A group of student representatives from Hong Kong universities made a plea on 3 December for the expedited passage of the Refugee Act in Taiwan and an institutionalised mechanism for asylum seekers from the semi-autonomous Chinese city, writes Huang Tzu-ti for Taiwan News.

The siege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University last month resulted in 1,377 arrests, 318 of them under-age, following a week-long standoff between protesters and police, noted Hsu Yung-ming, a legislator of the New Power Party in Taiwan. Many of the arrestees could face a sentence of up to 10 years on rioting charges, reported CAN.

The Refugee Act draft bill has been on the back burner in Taiwan’s legislature for over 10 years. According to one of the participating student representatives, the regulation currently governing issues pertaining to Hong Kong and Macau has been inadequate in addressing the needs of individuals from the two areas who wish to apply for aid or asylum via a transparent and traceable system.
Full report on the Taiwan News site