Spotlight thrown on mainland spouses' plight

KMT legislator Tina Pan (潘維剛) yesterday called for greater assistance to be extended to Chinese spouses of Taiwan nationals, following claims that many have been victims of domestic violence but lack sufficient information on outreach programs to get help.

Pan, who also chairs the Modern Women Foundation (現代婦女基金會), said her organization has dealt with several cases involving Chinese spouses and that they have found their problems are usually more complicated than those of either local or foreign spouses.

Pan said while most women tend to tolerate violence inflicted on them by their husbands simply because they cannot bear to split apart their family, the situation of Chinese women is compounded because their residency rights depend on their husbands.

At present, Chinese spouses of Taiwan nationals can apply for residency only after they have been married for two years. Those with children are not required to wait until after two years.

However, the time it takes from filing initial applications until they actually obtain residency rights can be several years, because Taiwan's government has set a yearly quota on the number of Chinese spouses to be granted such rights, resulting in long waiting lists.

The current quota is 3,600 people per year. In addition to the 20,000 applications pending, there is a pool of potential applicants awaiting to become "qualified to apply," according to statistics from the Bureau of Immigration.

Chinese spouses are qualified to apply for citizenship only after two years of residence in Taiwan.

Lai Fang-yu (賴芳玉), a volunteer lawyer at the foundation, pointed out that in cases where a Chinese spouse gets divorced from their Taiwan partner before obtaining citizenship, they are required to leave the country unless they have been granted legal custody of their children.

"Faced with this problem, many Chinese women have had no choice but to tolerate domestic violence," Lai said.

Pan said several severely abused women opted to run away from their families because they do not know where to get help.

Tsai Jeng-daw (蔡正道), executive secretary of the Ministry of the Interior's domestic violence prevention committee, said he is aware of 118 cases involving Chinese spouses.

Tsai said local help centers offer assistance for Chinese and foreign victims, which include helping them apply to courts for restraining orders and file reports with police.

Legal counseling for divorce lawsuits, subsidy of lawsuit expenses, and accompanying them to attend court hearings are some of the services offered by the centers, Tsai said.

The centers also help victims seek temporary shelter and offer them livelihood subsidies of NT$13,400 per month, for up to three months.

Other assistance includes teaching them protection measures and ways to collect evidence, helping arrange schooling for their children and helping them seek medical treatment.

Li Tian-yih (李添益), a section chief at the Mainland Affairs Council's Department of Legal Affairs, said the council has finished its editing work on a booklet to be handed out to Chinese spouses.

The booklet, which will be published in two months, will be a comprehensive source of information for them, Li said.

Helplines: The Domestic violence prevention committee: 080-000-600. The Modern Women Foundation: (02)2358-3030