Suspecting that more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who entered the country to work in the fishing business have overstayed their permitted time in Taiwan and are now at large, prosecutors and police yesterday raided a dormitory housing Chinese workers in Ilan County's Nanfangao (
Police also raided coast guard offices at the port and brokerage companies in charge of bringing Chinese to work in Taiwan. Prosecutors questioned both brokerage officials and county government officials in charge of the fishery business.
Ilan prosecutors said they suspected that more than 1,000 Chinese workers who have disappeared in recent years did not return to China after they finished their contracts.
PHOTO: CHIANG CHIH-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Nanfangao is known for housing hundreds of Chinese who work in the nation's fishery business.
Prosecutors suspect that some of the Chinese who have gone missing in Taiwan may work for China's intelligence bureau.
Chinese workers can apply to work for Taiwan fishing firms through brokerage companies, and they are allowed entry into Taiwan after their applications have been approved.
However, said Ilan prosecutors, it was common that after an applicant is approved, another person actually comes to Taiwan using the original applicant's identity.
Many of the Chinese workers have no experience in the fishing business when they come to Taiwan, prosecutors added.
An Ilan county government official in charge of regulating the fishery business, Chen Ching-ju (
Chen said that after Chinese workers are authorized to enter the country, they are transported by boat to Taiwan.
When the workers enter the country, coast guard officers checked their Chinese identification cards. If officers find workers trying to use fake IDs or IDs belonging to somebody else, they are sent back to China.
Taiwan currently has more than 4,000 Chinese workers in the fishery industry.
The central government has attempted to limit the number of Chinese workers in the industry, but fishing firms have opposed it due to a labor shortage since the 1980s.
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