152 Vietnamese tourists disappeared while traveling in Taiwan
A group of 152 Vietnamese tourists have had their visas revoked and will be deported once the Taiwan Immigration Bureau's Special Task Force finds them.
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Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan, where the Vietnamese tourist group entered the country. Photo:CNA. |
Focus TaiwanOfficials from Taiwan's National Immigration Agency (NIA) said on December 25 that they have set up a task force to search for 152 Vietnamese tourists who disappeared after entering Taiwan last weekend.
The NIA's Kaohsiung Special Task Force has obtained the itinerary of the group of tourists and is conducting a search with the help of the police. Sources said the NIA is also investigating whether human smugglers are involved in the incident. Once found, the 152 tourists will be deported for violating the Immigration Act and will be barred from entering Taiwan for a certain period of time.
The 152 tourists, who came to Taiwan in four groups, disappeared after they arrived in Kaohsiung on December 21 and 23.Taiwanese officials said 23 of the 152 Vietnamese passengers disappeared after entering Kaohsiung on December 21 and separated from the group en route from Nantou County to Sanchong District of New Taipei City. The remaining 130 entered Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Tainan on December 23 and disappeared two days later.
According to ETHoliday, the Taiwanese travel agency responsible for receiving the foreign tourists, the only person who did not disappear was the tour leader. A representative of the company said that the staff were caught off guard and immediately reported the incident to the Tourism Bureau, the NIA, and the Taiwan Foreign Ministry's Consular Office after discovering the incident. ETHoliday believes that the entire group of tourists, except for the tour leader, had falsified the purpose of the trip.
The group’s tour itinerary was arranged by the Vietnam-based International Resorts and Trade Travel Company. According to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, the company booked hundreds of e-visas through a program the Taiwanese government launched in 2015 that exempted visa fees for visitors from Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and India.
Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had canceled the visas of 152 missing tourists, and had also canceled the visa applications of 182 other Vietnamese tourists scheduled to visit Taiwan under the program.
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