Taoyuan police urged the government yesterday to launch media drives in China to curb human trafficking across the Taiwan Strait.
In the light of the drowning of six Chinese women in waters off western Taiwan while trying to sneak into the country last week, Taoyuan police said it would be more effective for authorities to educate the Chinese people and destroy their illusions about Taiwan through a media campaign. The police said a campaign across the Strait would be more effective than pressing for additional coast guard resources to crack down on smugglers.
Last week, 26 Chinese women were thrown overboard by human traffickers to escape pursuing Taiwanese coast guard ships off Miaoli. Six of the group drowned.
Taoyuan County has been one of the major places where traffickers dump their human cargo.
Taoyuan police say they are often called to arrest Chinese women from motels on charges of engaging in the sex trade.
Many of the Chinese women say they paid a fortune to secretly enter Taiwan to marry a Taiwanese man or to start a new life, police said.
The women said the traffickers promised them a better life in Taiwan, but often the reality was that setting foot in the country was just the beginning of their nightmares, according to police.
Taoyuan police said stopping human trafficking is a daunting task for Taiwan law enforcement agencies, adding that the coast guard is responsible for capturing vessels at sea, while on land it is up to police to find illegal immigrants.
Unless a case is reported and the police are alerted, finding illegal immigrants is like finding a needle in a haystack, the police said.
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