Taipei Times
Date: Jan 03, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday urged people not to remove a sticker from new
The entrance to the Gukeng Township Development Association in Yunlin County is pictured on Oct. 11 last year. Photo: Huang Shu-li, Taipei Times
biometric passports that would cover a bungled image, saying that doing so could result in passengers not being allowed to board their flights.
The Central Engraving and Printing Plant is designing the sticker, which would feature Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and be placed on an illustration on the fourth and fifth pages of the passport that depicts the Washington Dulles International Airport, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) told a routine news conference in Taipei.
The sticker, which costs NT$30 each, is an alternative remedy announced by the ministry on Sunday, after its previous plan to reprint all 550,000 copies of the botched passport — which would have seen the total manufacturing cost of NT$220 million (US$7.43 million) lost — was criticized by the public as a waste of taxpayers’ money. [FULL STORY]