Until an immigration office is established to handle the rampant smuggling of Chinese women, Chinese nationals married to Taiwanese spouses have to undergo interviews before being allowed to enter the country, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.
Yu also called on Beijing to face the illegal immigration problem and start cross-strait dialogues.
"Don't boycott the problem because of any political reasons, because it's not only a social problem but also a human-rights issue," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) quoted Yu as saying.
"It's tantamount to conniving to commit a crime or even helping it along if China keeps avoiding the problem," he said.
Yu spoke yesterday morning during the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting in response to the deaths of six illegal Chinese immigrants on Tuesday.
Six of 26 Chinese women aboard a Taiwanese boat died after they were all forced to jump off the boat in waters off Miaoli County while being chased by the coast guard.
Statistics show the number of illegal female Chinese immigrants has increased more than tenfold over the past four years. While women smuggled from China made up 7 percent of the total number of illegal Chinese immigrants, the figure rocketed to 73.3 percent as of July this year.
Vowing to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again, Yu yesterday instructed Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) to expedite the establishment of a screening mechanism in which Chinese nationals married to Taiwanese have to pass personal interviews before being allowing to enter the country.
"To solve the problem once and for all, though, an immigration office has to be set up to handle such thorny problems as fake marriages, shelters and deportation," Yu said.
Statistics show that there are more than 190,000 Chinese nationals married to Taiwanese citizens, many of whom fake their marriage to become prostitutes.
Yu asked Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (
Illegal immigrants are transported back to China once a month. The government hopes to increase this to once every 20 days.
Although the nation gets about 1,500 to 2,000 illegal immigrants a year, only about 150 people a month, or 1,800 a year, are returned to China.
To solve the problem of insufficient accommodation for illegal immigrants, Yu asked Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) to present short- and long-term improvement plans and timetables, and to carry out these plans as soon as possible.
There is only one shelter for illegal immigrants, in Hsinchu, that is reserved for women. As of the end of July, the facility had 850 residents, most of whom had been there for more than six months. A larger facility is scheduled to open in December 2008.
In addition to requesting the agencies concerned to investigate Tuesday's case, Yu yesterday instructed Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) to supervise the intensified investigation of cross-strait human trafficking syndicates.
The Coast Guard Administration will also form a task force with the National Police Administration to catch leaders of the smuggling rings.
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