A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker earlier this week urged the government to revise the immigration law to allow foreign spouses with young children to remain in Taiwan in the event they become divorced or widowed.
Legislator Lin Shu-shan (林樹山) made the comments on Monday, accompanying a divorced Vietnamese woman and widowed Cambodian woman, who are both facing deportation.
Lin said that under current immigration rules, foreign spouses who come to Taiwan are forced to leave the country if they divorce or upon the death of their partners, as their resident permits are automatically invalidated.
If they fail to leave within 15 days, they may be deported, Lin said, adding that their children were then forced to travel to their mothers' home countries and become "stateless" or remain in Taiwan without the care of their mothers.
Quoting statistics released by the Immigration Bureau, Lin said that there are 850 children of mixed marriages under the age of 12 in Vietnam and Indonesia whose Taiwanese household registrations have been revoked because they have not returned home for two years.
Adding in children abroad whose registrations have not yet been revoked, Lin said the number of kids abroad may reach between 3,000 and 4,000.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child prohibits the separation of young children from their mothers, Lin said, adding that Taiwan's child welfare law also stipulates that all public and private institutions must give priority to the child's well-being in dealing with issues involving children and adolescents.
Lin said that the country's immigration rules apparently violate the basic humanistic concern for the well-being of young children of mixed marriages.
The divorced Vietnamese woman, surnamed Hoang, said she faces a dilemma: If she leaves Taiwan without her young children, no one will be able to care for them; but if she takes them with her to Vietnam, they will have difficulty obtaining Vietnamese citizenship and receiving an education.
The father-in-law of the widowed Cambodian woman said his daughter-in-law will be deported because she has overstayed the 15-day limit following his son's death.
"After her deportation, who will care for my two little grandsons? Both my wife and I are old. The government should scrap its inhumane immigration rules," said the man, surnamed Lai.
Lo Hou-hsiang (
If they fail to apply in time and overstay their visas, they must leave Taiwan and apply for re-entry, Lo said.
Lo said the Ministry of the Interior was planning to extend the grace period to 30 days to benefit foreign spouses of Taiwanese.
Lo Fu-wen (羅復文), a consular official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acknowledged that there was a need for the government to revise the immigration law to allow divorced or widowed foreign spouses to stay in Taiwan with their children.
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