MOI to coordinate immigration

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) plans to establish a new department to handle immigration, coordinating the duties currently handled by several different ministries.

The ministry will also set a clear policy for the roughly 550,000 immigrants in Taiwan.

The MOI's vice minister, Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said that as part of the international community, Taiwan needs an integrated immigration department to handle matters dealing with visas, residency and security.

According to Chien, the proposal for the immigration department would be submitted to the Cabinet at the end of April.

No extra personnel would be required, since the new department would combine existing staff currently scattered among the different ministries.

The question of setting up a dedicated agency to handle immigration has been debated for a long time and has been spurred by government concerns about the effect of having a large population in the limited living spaces of the country.

Official figures have shown that about 12 percent of marriages in Taiwan involve a foreign bride. In addition, of the babies born in this country each year, one-eighth of them have a mother that is not Taiwanese.

According to official statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 87,000 women from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippine, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore came to Taiwan between 1994 and the end of last year to marry Taiwanese men.

The Straits Exchange Foundation says that another 148,000 brides arrived from China between 1993 and the end of last year.

Currently, foreign spouses from South East Asian countries are regulated by the Immigration Law (入出國移民法).

Spouses from China are regulated by the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).

The Interior Ministry started to provide some education for foreign brides only at the end of 1999, after the Legislative Yuan passed a bill requiring the ministry to do so.

Currently, immigration matters are handled by the Mainland Affairs Council, the MOI's Bureau of Immigration and the National Police Administration.

The Ministry of Education deals with educational matters for immigrants while the Cabinet-level Department of Health takes care of their medical affairs.

Chien said that the Interior Ministry will hold a meeting next week in which local governments will be invited to express their opinions about the makeup and scope of a new department dedicated to handling immigration.