Disappointed with a petition procedure, a stateless woman turned to the legal system yesterday in a bid to have her Taiwan-born twin daughters naturalized.
Hu Hui-chin (
Hu recounted the lengthy procedure she has gone through since 1996 to have her daughters registered as Taiwan nationals, and her encounters with various agencies -- from the local household registration bureau to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the Nationality Law, children born in Taiwan of stateless parents, or whose parents are unknown, qualify for Taiwan citizenship.
However, Hu said her application for the twins' citizenship has been rejected by the government agencies on the grounds that she was unable to present documents to prove her "stateless" status.
"But the problem was that none of them could tell me where to obtain such a document and which agency is in charge," Hu said, with her twin daughters leaning against her. "They are nearing school age but they won't be permitted to enroll before being registered as Taiwan citizens."
Richard Hartzell, voluntary defender for Hu, added that it should have been a very simple and easy case, but contradictions among the government agencies have made it unusually complicated.
Hu, 32, was born and raised in northern Myanmar and came to Taiwan 10 years ago on a forged passport, which she bought from Thai traders. Hu said that following her entry to Taiwan, the fake passport was taken away by the traders and she found herself in limbo, without any identity papers.
Unable to be employed full time, she makes accessories to support the daughters she gave birth to out of wedlock in 1996.
Hu said at first she applied to the Household Registration Bureau for the children's citizenship registrations, but was told she needed proof from her home country that she was indeed stateless.
Not knowing how to obtain the proof, she continued to apply to the Ministry of the Interior for specific instructions, and was told to produce relevant documents and have them stamped by the appropriate ROC Overseas Offices under the foreign affairs ministry.
Without the required documents, Hu wrote out one herself and submitted it to foreign affairs ministry, thinking the ministry would forward her "stateless" proof to its overseas offices to have it verified.
However, ministry officials rejected her document because it had not been issued by appropriate government representatives in the country of the "stateless" person and so is not considered valid.
An official from the foreign affairs ministry attending to yesterday's hearing declined to specify why the ministry had refused to proceed with Hu's petition, but stated they did everything "in accordance with the law."
Hu's case is from from unique. There are hundreds of stateless ethnic Chinese living in Taiwan without identity papers, including those from Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Tibet.
The trial yesterday was ordered closed to the media by presiding Judge Lin Yu-ju (
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