IHRP 2004: Taiwan Association for Human Rights

Taiwan Association for Human Rights  (Taiwan)

I am currently assisting on two cases of political refugees from Mainland China who are being detained here in Taiwan after fleeing the Mainland. They are both seeking political asylum in the United States. The Taiwanese process of requesting refugee status and government assistance in arranging third-country asylum is largely informal. Working with Taiwan Association for Human RIGHTS (TAHR), we met with a Cabinet member, Ching-Huei Hsieh, to lobby for the government to make an asylum request to the U.S. government. We also visited one of the refugees, Yuan Peng, at the detention center and advised him on the state of his case, as well as making sure he was receiving proper treatment.

I have also attempted to contact the U.S. State Department to check whether an asylum request has been received and lobby for action. I have been asked to write an article about the cases for a local newspaper.

For a related project, TAHR has formed a coalition of NGOs that is going to draft a law for the department of immigration that includes the rights of asylum seekers and stateless persons. I have been doing research for this committee.

Smaller projects have included providing assistance in arranging vocational training for a death row inmate awaiting retrial.

Chinglu detention facility for illegal Chinese immigrants