The families of four of the six Chinese women who drowned last month when the human smugglers they were traveling with forced them overboard in the Taiwan Strait went to Taichung yesterday to identify the drowned women's bodies and demand compensation.
On Aug. 26, human traffickers dumped 22 Chinese women into the sea when their boats were spotted and chased by Coast Guard Administration ships near Tungshiao, Miaoli County.
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The Straits Exchange Foundation arranged for the families to fly to Taiwan on Tuesday night.
At a funeral parlor in Taichung yesterday, the families wailed and collapsed as they recognized their loved ones. They also demanded NT$2.5 million compensation from Taiwan's government for each of the women who drowned.
Foundation Secretary-General Shi Hwei-yow (
If the court grants the full amount, it would be the most the government has ever paid out in compensation to the families of illegal immigrants.
According to Shi, the Criminal Victim Protection Law might provide a legal basis for the claim.
"But the court has yet to decide whether the law applies to Chinese citizens," Shi said.
Since the victims were committing a crime when they died, the court could rule that they are ineligible for compensation, Shi said.
The families went to the funeral parlor accompanied by foundation officials, coast guard officers, policemen and Red Cross members.
The families identified the four women as Zeng Xiaoli (
Upon his arrival at the CKS International Airport, Xu Chaoxuan (徐朝軒), father of Xu Ying, said that he last heard from his daughter on Aug. 23.
"From then on I heard nothing from her," he said.
He fainted after identifying his daughter's body.
The foundation, expecting the families to be emotionally unstable when they saw the bodies, had an ambulance standing by.
Wu Xinming (
"The human smugglers should be chopped to pieces," he snapped afterward.
The families later went to the coast of Tungshiao, where Taoist priests performed the traditional rituals for them to call the spirits of their daughters to return.
Shi said most of the families were quite poor, so the foundation had paid for their return flights to China.
"But we have written to the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait [SEF's counterpart in China] asking it to pay us back the cost of the tickets," Shi said.
Shi said the foundation would pay for the transportation, food and accommodation of the families while they are in Taiwan.
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