A sobering story about overstaying

Legal Visa & Residency
1

thewildeast.net/news/2011/06 … on-center/

[quote]Dear ‘M’,
Do you have some time to write about your experience of spending 2 months in the Taipei Detention Center? We’d like to publish this on The Wild East, as it really concerns a lot of people, especially foreigners in Taiwan.

Hi. Yes, sure, no biggie. I myself am writing a book about it and the ‘hole’ story, so I would like to share my experience with you. It does concern a lot of people, and I hope things improve in Taiwan in the future, because right now, my only opinion is that the Taiwanese laws are a bunch of horseshit. I ‘m not saying I shouldn’t have been deported, because I did overstay my visa for more than 2 years, but I’m kinda angry because I wasn’t deported faster and because of some other things that happened while I was inside the detention center.

In my opinion, if a person is caught overstaying visa there should be only payment, punishment and immediate deportation — not ‘doing time’ the same as hookers, physical abusers, drug dealers and people with no documents whatsoever. I guess in Taiwan everybody falls in the same basket, okay, maybe some do a bit more time than others, but everybody is treated exactly the same behind bars.

So after I was prosecuted (N— must have told you why I was taken to the police station in the first place) and my only legal offence was an overstayed visa, I was cuffed, and taken to the immigration agency in Banciao. The police officers saw I had nothing but my bag with me, no food, no clean clothes, no water, no money. They bought me a sandwich and a bottle of water, two pairs of disposable underwear and socks and allowed me to smoke one more cigarette before turning me in to the immigration authorities. I smoked my cigarette and said, “I’m ready”.

We entered the Banciao immigration office. One guy took my passport, glanced at it and said with gloating smile, “Ahhh. Ha ha ha.” There was a conversation about my “bad, bad country” and then he told me I had to put my fingerprints on some documents. They were all in Chinese, and I didn’t understand the characters. I put my thumb on the paper, that evil red ink… I’ll never forget that feeling… I saw a date on the paper: December 20th to February 19th.[/quote]

Ouch! I was always under the impression that overstaying westerners simply got deported with a NTD10k fine, plus refused reentry for a year or so. From this woman’s experience it looks like more serious measures are sometimes implemented. I am guessing from her story that she is a South African, but that’s just a guess. Always best to stay legal, of course, although I’m not judgemental about those who don’t in these situations. The regulations in Taiwan sometimes force people into illegality.

2

Ah man, just when it starts to get good it ends. Where is Part 2 already!

3

It’s a bit strange. You have to go to the top of the page and click on the link to part 2. It is there - just tricky to find.

thewildeast.net/news/2011/06 … ry-part-2/

4

I can’t find Part 3.

5

That’s where she writes a book about it.

I’ve changed my mind about her being South African. I’m leaning towards a European nationality, possibly Russian, but I’m confused about the high quality of her English. Which nationality would a Taiwanese immigration officer consider ‘bad’?

6

I’ve changed my mind about her being South African. I’m leaning towards a European nationality, possibly Russian, but I’m confused about the high quality of her English. Which nationality would a Taiwanese immigration officer consider ‘bad’?[/quote]
I reckon she could be Saffer. She used the expression “ai ya yah”, a (if I’m not mistaken), Yiddish exclamation, commonly used by white South Africans. The article is obviously ghost-written or heavily edited. Her replies to comments betray her English ability.

7

I’ve changed my mind about her being South African. I’m leaning towards a European nationality, possibly Russian, but I’m confused about the high quality of her English. Which nationality would a Taiwanese immigration officer consider ‘bad’?[/quote]
I reckon she could be Saffer. She used the expression “ai ya yah”, a (if I’m not mistaken), Yiddish exclamation, commonly used by white South Africans. The article is obviously ghost-written or heavily edited. Her replies to comments betray her English ability.[/quote]

Yeah. A North American has been at work on the editing - the phrase a bunch of horseshit jumps out. I just got confused when she mentioned that Europe wasn’t on the list for making phone calls.

Anyway, regardless of her nationality it’s a story that really surprised me. I was under the impression that whiteys just got deported.

8

Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean the Taiwanese government is unjustified in detaining such people for a couple of months. Presumably, the government would like to deter others from breaking the law. There was nothing cruel or unusual about her detention, in my opinion. The guards defended her against irritating prisoners, provided her medicine when she needed it, allowed her to call friends and family, etc.

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I agree. It didn’t sound particularly inhumane to me.

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I’ve changed my mind about her being South African. I’m leaning towards a European nationality, possibly Russian, but I’m confused about the high quality of her English. Which nationality would a Taiwanese immigration officer consider ‘bad’?[/quote]
I reckon she could be Saffer. She used the expression “ai ya yah”, a (if I’m not mistaken), Yiddish exclamation, commonly used by white South Africans. The article is obviously ghost-written or heavily edited. Her replies to comments betray her English ability.[/quote]
Yeah anyone who has seen Gods Must Be Crazy knows that! :bow:

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@ Gao Bohan & jimipresley:

You’re right. She didn’t suffer a la the Bangkok Hilton or suchlike. I was trying not to come across as melodramatic in my thread title and opinion - perhaps I could have toned it down further. My basic point is that people shouldn’t expect that a simple fine and deportation is all that will happen for an overstay. A 2 month prison sentence could also be on the cards. Just something for people to keep in mind before making the decision to be a little naughty.

12

I certainly was casting no aspersions on your fine character, Mr Thorne. Merely pointing out that the lassie had a pretty easy time of it, relatively speaking.

13

She is writing a book, hoping it will be Pappillon, or the Shawshank redemption.

14

They could turn it into a Taiwanese version of Midnight Express. Get Oliver Stone to write the script.

15

They lock you up in Australia for 2 months if you don’t abide by the rules of your student visa.

Was living with a Colombian Masters student in Sydney (masters is around $8000 a semester i think)
He was only supposed to do 20 hours paid work a week or something (or fortnight). He was doing double that at a sandwich bar in a large shopping centre opposite the university. Immigration got a tip off and raided the place.
Took my flatmate to Villawood and he stayed in there for 3-4 weeks. We had to send him his passport in a taxi.
Rich kid with Doctor parents - shook him up being stuck in there so long.

They fined him $7000 Aus (216,121.93 TWD) and then gave him 8 weeks to get his shit together.
To prove he wasn’t going to stay he had to move from his current residence.

Waste of my tax dollars putting him in there. Just makes SERCO richer.

You get locked up in Australia for working too many hours on your student visa!! My Norwegian flatmate was horrified (as was I).

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I don’t understand why people are amazed when the government punishes people for breaking the law, particularly laws that are thoroughly advertised and well known. Violating the terms of one’s visa is going to be taken seriously everywhere, including our home countries (as Askr’s post demonstrates), and spending one or two months in a detention center prior to deportation seems like a fairly reasonable punishment.

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Same here. The author of the article did seem to be casting herself as the victim, however, and I was responding to her tone, not the good Mr. Thorne’s. Ophelia, she is not.

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I’m not amazed that the government punished him. The punishment was expulsion and a fine which is fair enough. Im just unsure why they locked him up at all (and for so long). I didn’t like the guy personally and thought he deserved to get caught. But all that processing and incarceration… waste of money for student visa violation. Studying in Australia is big industry and the students who come here pay big money. The strong Aussie dollar is ducking it all up though.

Anyway, the girl in the article sounds like a dumbass.

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Same here. The author of the article did seem to be casting herself as the victim, however, and I was responding to her tone, not the good Mr. Thorne’s. Ophelia, she is not.[/quote]

Don’t worry, chaps. I didn’t feel that anything was aspersed.

I’m avoiding the ‘another foreigner busted for drugs’ threads because I don’t want to get accused of being a gloater. However, from foreigner comments that I hear and read I get the impression that there is a general feeling of invulnerability. In terms of visa rules, this is compounded by the stories people have heard about guys who overstayed for years and then just walked onto the plane with only a tiny fine. I think it’s important to keep pointing out that committing crimes isn’t a minor issue and could lead to serious repercussions just as it would in our home countries. Sometimes much more serious repercussions. At least then people can make infomed decisions before doing naughty stuff and hopefully suck up their punishment like a man if they get caught and stop whinging about it - which is something that particularly irritates me.

20

[quote=“tomthorne”]I’m avoiding the ‘another foreigner busted for drugs’ threads because I don’t want to get accused of being a gloater. However, from foreigner comments that I hear and read I get the impression that there is a general feeling of invulnerability. In terms of visa rules, this is compounded by the stories people have heard about guys who overstayed for years and then just walked onto the plane with only a tiny fine. I think it’s important to keep pointing out that committing crimes isn’t a minor issue and could lead to serious repercussions just as it would in our home countries. Sometimes much more serious repercussions. At least then people can make infomed decisions before doing naughty stuff and hopefully suck up their punishment like a man if they get caught and stop whinging about it - which is something that particularly irritates me.[/quote]I agree wholeheartedly. :bravo: I also read the woman’s two parts of her “Hole Story” and I guess the thing that struck me the most was her apparent lack of remorse for what she had done or acceptance of responsibility for her own actions. Does she ever admit that she was totally wrong and deserved the punishment she received? I didn’t feel it. The other thing which I feel is extremely important to her story is the reason she overstayed for two years. Of course she conveniently passes over the explanation as to why she felt that it was necessary for her to overstay her visa. Why did she do it? What possessed her to make such a stupid and easily preventable error in judgement? I’ve lived In Taiwan for 11 years and have never once had an overstay. I’ve lived and traveled all over the world most of my life from childhood through adulthood and have never been in violation of my visa status. Why is it so difficult for some people to follow another country’s rules and regulations? General feeling of invulnerability? Superiority? Entitlement? “I’m white, so the rules don’t apply to me!”? I’ve always looked at the issue of me being a whitey as a liability as I stand out like a sore thumb instead of blending in with the rest of the population. Further, my physical difference will just be highlighted even more if I get caught for wrong doing. Take the recent whitey that just got busted for marijuana in Danshui. He’s going to get more sensational news coverage, treated more harshly by the police and the public in general than all of the Taiwanese who are nabbed for the same offenses on a daily basis for which we hear little or nothing about. How many drunk drivers hit and kill pedestrians or scooter riders? Many. But, we only really hear about the foreigners like Zain Dean because he’s so easy to demonize as a nasty “foreign invader” who is not one of “us”. It’s very easy to get singled out because of a different physical appearance and for that I feel I should make sure that I act in a way that best protects myself, my interests, and my loved ones while I’m a guest in a foreign country. I might feel Taiwan is my home, but I will never be perceived as anything other than a foreigner living in Taiwan by the Taiwanese people. :2cents: