Forty-three percent of foreign spouses in Taipei County do not live where they are supposed to, according to a recent survey by the county's Civil Affairs Bureau released yesterday.
Since last October, the bureau stepped up the number of social workers conducting large-scale door-to-door visits to all 47,191 foreign and Chinese who live -- or are at least had registered to live -- in Taipei County.
"There are three reasons that a particular foreign spouse cannot be found. They no longer reside at their registered address, are not present at the time of a house visit, or have since divorced their Taiwanese spouse," Lee Chiu-lan (李秋蘭), an officer with the bureau's population affairs section said yesterday.
The survey showed that 10,211 individuals no longer reside at their registered addresses, 3,502 have divorced and 6,933 were no longer in the country.
With regard to the missing foreign spouses who are still in Taiwan, authorities are now seeking help from local police to locate them.
As of Aug. 31 last year, 11,894 foreign spouses and 35,284 Chinese spouses were registered as residing in Taipei County.
The door-to-door survey was part of the New Residents Education and Counseling Project undertaken by the county government's department of education, in cooperation with the police, transportation, public health, social affairs and labor departments.
According to 2004 figures provided by the Ministry of the Interior's Department of Statistics, Taipei County had the highest number of married couples where one of spouses was a foreign or Chinese national.
Last year, 5,062 cross-national couples registered to be married in Taipei County, which made up 16.17 percent of total number of cross-national married couples that year, followed by 2,961 in Taipei City and 2,937 in Taoyuan County.
By the end of last year, the total number of foreign and Chinese spouses in Taiwan was estimated to be at 338,000, with 122,000 registered as naturalized citizens.
The Central News Agency reported yesterday that the bureau's director of civil affairs, Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸), said that foreign and Chinese spouses who had been visited wished to seek employment security in Taiwan.
According to the report, the greatest needs expressed by the survey's participants were, employment services, vocational training and labor rights.
In addition, the majority of foreign spouses were also keen on learning Taiwanese and Mandarin and hoped to participate in language classes. Many were interested in understanding Taiwan's social welfare regulations, taking driving lessons and getting legal advice on national health insurance.
Pan Wen-chuang (潘文忠), director of Taipei County's bureau of education, said that in order to help foreign spouses learn Chinese, every elementary school in the county should offer special language programs for foreign spouses.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS