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.
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