Taiwan's ban on returnees unreasonable

The Lunar New Year holiday is the most cherished occasion for family reunions for people of Chinese descent.

As part of this most spectacular human migration that replays itself each year, numerous Taiwan compatriots working, living, studying or visiting in the Chinese mainland fly home for a festive reunion with loved ones.

That yearning for the trip home was made stronger this year by the novel coronavirus epidemic, which set the entire mainland rushing to contain it. Amid such a public health crisis, which the World Health Organization has officially designated as a public health emergency of international concern, it is understandable that many Taiwan compatriots who have found themselves stranded in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, wish to leave.

With the entire Hubei now in lockdown in a desperate bid to curb further spread of the epidemic, however, it is simply impossible to leave by public transport.

Inside Hubei, despite the strenuous endeavors being made, the number of infections keeps rising each passing day, in the provincial capital Wuhan in particular.

It was out of humanitarian concerns that authorities on the mainland responded to the appeals of stranded Taiwan compatriots and arranged flights to fly them home.

Under such an arrangement, the first group of 247 has already flown to the island. Had things gone smoothly, all those who wanted to leave should have been in Taiwan by last Thursday.

Yet the 890 people from the island who had registered for the four other flights originally scheduled for last Wednesday and Thursday remain stuck in Hubei because the Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan are creating various excuses to make their return home impossible.

They first blamed the mainland for not arranging flights according to their preferred "order", which turns out to be an unnecessary fuss－because all who want to fly home would have been in Taiwan in at most four days.

Then there is the claim that one in the first group flown home was confirmed to have been infected. While the mainland side made it very clear that each and every passenger went through strict medical screening before boarding the flight home, they have made a hilarious discovery－the person allegedly infected has confirmed he, like fellow passengers on that flight, remains in quarantine, in sound state, and has no idea of being a "confirmed case".

There may be nothing surprising here given the protracted political wrangling across the Straits.

Still it is sad that basic humanitarian concerns have again taken the back seat to political shenanigans of the Tsai Ing-wen administration.