The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday said it had captured 74 members of a multimillion dollar human smuggling ring.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office took them into custody last month for trafficking underage Chinese girls to the US using Republic of China (ROC) passports.
The bust was the biggest of its kind in the nation’s fight against human trafficking, the NIA said.
Chung Ching-kun (鐘景琨), commander of the Border Affairs Corps at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, said the “snakeheads” used the identities of Aboriginal children who were under the age of 14, combined with pictures of the Chinese girls, to apply for ROC passports and US visas.
US immigration rules stipulate that people under the age of 14 do not require a face-to-face interview with immigration officials when applying for a visa.
“The smugglers also recruited more than 30 Taiwanese women, ranging from businesswomen, former flight attendants, nurses and college lecturers, to act as mules when taking the underage Chinese girls to the US,” he said.
The mules, known as “mommies,” were compensated with a free round-trip ticket to the US and between US$1,000 and US$1,500 in cash, he said.
The NIA said that upon arrival in the US, the victims often ended up working in brothels or sweatshops.
Chung said the NIA, in collaboration with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had been investigating the case for eight months.
The multimillion dollar smuggling operation was headed by two Taiwanese men and two Chinese counterparts.
Seventy-four members, including the “mommies,” are being investigated by the Taoyuan District Office.
The NIA believes other members of the group are still at large.
Unlike in the past, the syndicate did not use Taiwan as a transit point, but chose to directly transport their victims from Hong Kong to the US, Chuang said, adding that the ring chose this route because they were aware of tougher security at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The commander said that this was not the first time that his agency and the US department had worked together to prevent human traffickers from entering the US.
Last year, with the help of the NIA, the DHS arrested six Chinese snakeheads at an airport before they entered the US.
NIA Director-General Hsieh Li-gong (謝立功)said the case highlights Taiwan’s determination and efficiency in combating human trafficking.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the US State Department announced that Taiwan remained a “Tier 2” country in their annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan all received the same ranking as Taiwan, while China remained on the Tier 2 “watch list” for the fifth year running.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS