Migrant detainees grateful for free checkups

Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency and a local charity conducted free medical check-ups and consultations for foreign detainees on Sunday at a new detention center for migrants. The center in Kaohsiung, which has been open for just three months, houses 231 people.

On February 17, dozens of Chinese and western medical practitioners, nurses, pharmacists and interpreters from the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) joined hands to give a range of specialist services to migrants at the Kaohsiung Detention Center, Liberty Times reported.

The 231 detained migrants, most of them from Vietnam and Indonesia, were able to receive specialist family medicine, ophthalmology, internal medicine, surgery, and Chinese medicine.

Examinations for blood pressure and blood glucose levels were also undertaken.

Siti Nurhipayah, 32, said she never expected to be able to receive dental services from Taiwanese authorities despite being arrested and detained for committed an offense.

An official from the Immigration Agency’s Southern Administration Corps said quite a number of the detainees were tempory residents who suffered emotional distress or some physical illnesses.

Free medical check-ups and consultations were a final blessing from the authorities before these migrants were sent back to their home countries.