Foreign students 11. Media outlets reported that the school policy at Yung-Ping Vocational High School of prohibiting overseas compatriot students from leaving the school during the level-3 COVID alert from May to August 2021 was unreasonable.12 The Ministry of Education (MOE) stated that while students could not go to internships or work during school closures, the school provided relief funds and raised funds and supplies to support the needs of their foreign students, and that the government’s preventive measures did not discriminate on the grounds of nationality.13 However, the response from the school representative indicated that the school’s tight control over entering and leaving campus was put in place due to COVID-19, and was in fact a stay-at-home order for the overseas students. 12.For §§1-11, the NHRC recommends : (1) The government should refer to the UN CERD’s Statement on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its implications under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination . Measures taken during COVID-19 should be racially and ethnically sensitive, including preventive measures for indigenous peoples, immigrant children’s right to family reunification, and the right to apply for naturalization to obtain nationality. (2) The government should ensure that migrant workers and their employers are well informed about border entry controls, quarantine measures, and preventive regulations during the pandemic, and should refrain from imposing undue restrictions on personal freedom. 12 13 12 Hello Vietnam (2021, Aug 10). International Students Treated as Second-Class, Is Taiwan a Dream or Prison? Last retrieved from https://hellovietnam.tw/tw/hello-life/397 on March 20, 2023. An organization referred to the article in the NHRC discussion meeting with civil society organizations on November 3, 2022. Responses of the MOE and MOHW in the NHRC meeting with government agencies (2023, Jan 17).