Taiwan’s customs officials have issued a fine of NT$200,000 ($9,369) to a traveller for attempting to bring a lunch box containing pork into the country.
The Indonesian national had arrived from Hong Kong on April 30 when a quarantine dog sniffed out the “roast chicken and pork combo”, said the Taiwanese Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency.
The traveller was reportedly unable to pay the fine and deported.
Taiwan introduced fines of NT$200,000 for bringing pork products to the island from countries affected by African swine fever (ASF) following an outbreak in China in 2018.
Fines increase to NT$1 million for subsequent breaches of quarantine.
Anywhere with a biosecurity law has signs posted in the most popular languages. And they’ll usually tell you not to bring food or animal products into the country in any form. And there are convenient trash cans in case you did bring something you need to get rid of before you hit customs.
The guy was from Indonesia and routed to Taiwan via Hong Kong. There’s a good chance there were no signs or announcements in a language he could understand.
Do you think he traveled to Taiwan without being able to speak any English or any Mandarin? Also there is a very solid chance that his flight company informed him of the rules as he was booking the flight. Also there is stuff like pictograms. Also Indonesia is majority Muslim country, so being part of a pork eating minority further increases the likeliness of being able to speak at least some other language.
I’ve been conditioned by companies too disregard all signs as they are 99% of the time only there to sell garbage and distract me…
Turning that instinct off when going through security screening, customs, or biosecurity is usually a good idea.