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Draft bill to combat human trafficking

The Executive Yuan is expected to approve on Wednesday a draft bill of the organic law of the immigration office (入出國及移民署組織條例), which will help to combat the rampant smuggling of Chinese women and other trafficking in humans.

According to Minister without Portfolio Yeh Chun-jung (葉俊榮), who was responsible for reviewing the draft bill, the immigration office, once approved by the legislature, will be established under the Ministry of the Interior to handle immigration affairs, including the screening of potential immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Macau as well as overseas Taiwanese without household-registration records.

"Personal interviews will be conducted at three levels: at the overseas representative offices before a potential immigrant enters the country, at customs and at home after they have entered the country," Yeh said.

The interior ministry started interviewing Chinese spouses married to Taiwanese on Sept. 1. This was in an attempt to stop Chinese women from coming to Taiwan by way of fake marriages and becoming prostitutes.

As of Sept. 11, the ministry had interviewed 209 married couples. Of those, 104 required a second round of interviews because they had provided inconsistent information.

The interviews came after the death of six Chinese women who were forced to jump off a Taiwanese boat chased by the coast guard in waters off Miaoli County.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun later announced that the government would establish an immigration office to tackle the smuggling problem. However, before the office is established, Chinese spouses will have to undergo personal interviews before being allowed to enter the country.

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 in 2000, the figure rocketed to 73.3 percent as of July.

In addition to conducting interviews, the immigration office would also provide counseling and conduct censuses.

The ministry announced yesterday that it is set to kick off a nationwide census on foreign and Chinese spouses next month.

Statistics made available by the ministry yesterday showed that there were about 280,000 inter-racial and cross-strait marriages registered in the country as of this year. While 13,904 newborn babies, or more than 5 percent of the nation's total newborns, came from mixed marriages between Taiwanese and Chinese or foreign nationals in 1998, the number last year skyrocketed to 247,530, or over 12 percent of total newborns.

According to Yeh, the immigration office will consist of nine divisions, including an investigation squad, and 1,640 staffers.

The 300-strong investigation squad will encompass 10 teams and 25 sub-teams and be responsible for investigating and deporting people for immigration violations.

The document-examination squad, comprising 15 teams and 38 sub-teams, will be responsible for examining documents at international airports and harbors.

Yeh said that the personal interviews are not aimed at intimidating potential immigrants, but at gathering information and providing a service.
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