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AWOL Taiwanese intelligence officer held in U.K.

ROC Central News Agency

2013/12/19 15:53:56

London, Dec. 18 (CNA) A Taiwanese military intelligence officer who went absent without leave and fled to the United Kingdom in July 2012 has been detained as the Taiwanese authorities seek her deportation.

Taiwan's representative office in London said Wednesday that it was negotiating with the U.K. Border Agency for the expedited deportation of Emily Yeh, a lieutenant with Taiwan's Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) under the General Staff Headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense.

According to Welsh media reports, Yeh, 33, had lived in Newport in South Wales for 18 months before she was found Dec. 10 to have remained in the country illegally.

Yeh had been volunteering with Oxfam, an aid and development charity, as well as serving as an interpreter for the Welsh Refugee Council, prior to her detention, a South Wales Argus report said.

She was first held at a police station and was later transferred to an immigration removal center.

The newspaper said about 30 of her friends staged a protest outside the police office last weekend, calling for her to be allowed to stay in the U.K.

Acting on a Ministry of Foreign Affairs direction, the Taipei Representative Office in London notified the U.K. Border Agency in July last year that Yeh had been put on Taiwan's wanted list for desertion and that her Republic of China passport had been invalidated.

Yeh is believed to have entered the U.K. under a visa-free travel program and her right to stay in the country without a visa apparently expired long ago.

The South Wales Argus report said the British Home Office gave Yeh accommodation after her arrival in Newport.

In an interview with the paper after being detained, Yeh claimed she fled after learning she would have to do 'dangerous things' working in the intelligence service without the support of her government.

Yeh is said to have attended college in the United States before going back to Taiwan and joining the MIB out of patriotism at the age of 30.

In Taipei, a MND spokesman said Yeh went AWOL for personal reasons and some local media's characterization of her flight as 'defection' is incorrect.

On her volunteer work in Wales, she told the Argus: 'Because I don't have any family here, I really want to get involved with the community and try to blend in and and get to know who lives here.'

ROC Representative to the U.K. Shen Lyushun told CNA in an interview that Yeh did not have a valid passport when she was caught by the U.K. Border Agency.

She had applied for an extension of stay, but her application was rejected, Shen said.

The Welsh paper said Yeh had sought British political asylum on the grounds that she would likely be given death penalty if returned to Taiwan.

Shen said Yeh's claim about a capital sentence was wrong but her asylum application could extend the time needed for her deportation to Taiwan.

One of Yeh's friends was quoted by the newspaper as saying that Yeh was distressed at the prospect of being sent back to Taiwan.

The paper also quoted a British Home Office spokesman as having said: 'We believe that those who fail to establish a genuine fear of persecution should return home. If they do not, we will enforce their removal.'

(By Jennifer Huang and Sofia Wu)
ENDITEM/J