I also have a frontline health provider direct relative who will be dealing with covid infected patients . It sucks.
I’m guessing, in addition to foreign residents being an afterthought, they are worried about massive under the radar outflows, especially to China. In general Taiwan needs to clear up its citizenship, nationality, residency and permanent residency laws. All the moocher class living abroad but still abusing Taiwan pension and NHI amount to massive wastes.
Taiwan needs to sort out if it wants white collar immigrants or not. People with options won’t stay here if they feel like they will never be accepted as part of the nation and are discriminated against. That’s why Japan never became an attractive immigrant destination.
Beyond this, it generates anti-foreigner sentiment (among people who are already prone to such thinking). I can’t find it now and am not going to search longer than I have but I’ve seen several memes that show lines of people outside of pharmacies saying “this is how the government treats Taiwanese people” then Tsai Ying-wen at a press conference holding masks saying things to the effect of “this is how they treat foreigners”.
I don’t get it. Taiwan sending million masks to my country would be obviously more beneficial than individuals sending hundreds or thousands masks, even if the masks would not directly go to my family there.
I wish foreigners were as willing to mobilize for issues like this as supposed to something not as important as to whether they could rent a Ubike. Obviously that is important too but there are so many more issues such as this mask situation that are much more important. Lets just say I’ve done my part and you all should as well if you want to send masks home for your families. We pay tax here as well guys, and the government always seems to forget that.
Like another poster here said, I find it very hard to really give a crap what happens to Taiwan politically when they always demand for foreign recognition but then treat their resident foreigners like second class citizens.
And they need to apply online for an export license.
Maybe my understanding on this is not clear. Taiwan citizens living in Taiwan can send masks to family members overseas that are also Taiwan citizens. But they can’t send masks to family members that are not Taiwan citizens. Is that right?
yes
Add:
They may not need to be citizens. Being nationals may be enough.
This seems wrong. They maybe should have national ID number.
There might be a change in policy end of the month. Nothing definitive yet.
We have to wait and hope there is no outbreak in Taiwan.
So Taiwan citizens can send masks to their family members but Taiwan permanent resident non-citizens are legally barred from doing so. It doesn’t touch my heart.
Well, who’d know.
they also cannot send masks to their non-taiwanese family members. The only unfairness I care at this moment is non taiwanese residents cannot send masks to their taiwanese family members.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to limit recipients to taiwanese, when masks are not enough to distribute one per day to every taiwan resident after the government secures masks for frontline workers including overseas need.
This is a fair point. However, the government says there is no shortage of N95 masks and they don’t anticipate any shortage in the near future. So they are not requesting increased production of N95 masks. I’ve seen them for sale at Carrefour. No shortage right now.
I think this is being blown out of proportion and see no reason for mobilization. Unlike the ubike issue which is actual discrimination.
It makes sense to me that Taiwanese would be able to send it to Taiwanese family members. Foreigners in general unless they are ABT or married to a Taiwanese wouldn’t have Taiwanese family members. So that essentially excludes us completely. Everyone is limited to one box per month so it’s not like we would be exporting it to people.
They can send it to their family members , so should we be allowed.
Do you think it is fair hundreds of thousands of foreign caregivers are not covered under the labour standards act, what about their health and their well being, how about their parents overseas while they are busy taking care of elderly Taiwanese citizens. You think it’s reasonable they can’t send their parents overseas masks from their own allocation?
Actually this is a serious topic,PPE is extremely important to health providers, my relative is putting their life on the line.
Overseas taiwanese can get masks from (taiwanese) family members in Taiwan. Overseas foreigners cannot get masks from family members in Taiwan. I don’t think this is unfair.
yes, so I think it is more beneficial when provided as mass donation or mass selling by the government rather than individual small sendings.
Why is that relevant to the mask debate ?
I think so while masks are allocated. imo, caregivers sould use their masks by themselves, unless masks during their work hours are separately provided.
That’s fooked up