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Women's group accuses MOFA of discrimination

Cambodian women married to Taiwanese men protest outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei yesterday. The group accused the ministry of discriminating against Cambodians trying to obtain Taiwanese citizenship. PHOTO; CHENG HSUEH-YUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

A group of Cambodian women who are married to Taiwanese yesterday accused the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of discrimination against them on the issue of obtaining Taiwanese citizenship.

Approximately 2,800 Cambodian women who are married to Taiwanese men are not able to become Taiwanese citizens despite having families and years of residency in Taiwan, the Transnational Sisters' Association, an organization that aims to protect foreign spouses' rights, said.

The Nationality Law (國籍法) requires that foreign nationals submit a certificate of renunciation of nationality (CRN) issued by their country of origin before they can obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

However, the task is impossible for Cambodians.

"Cambodia doesn't recognize Taiwan and its government refuses to issue such certificates to Cambodians who wish to obtain Taiwanese citizenship," Shawn Wu (吳紹文), secretary-general of the group, told the press conference.

In some cases when certificates were issued, they were rejected by the ministry because of the remark "valid only for the People's Republic of China on the documents," Wu said. "How do we live and work here [in Taiwan] without a national identity card?"

"I'm afraid that I cannot come back if I go back to Cambodia to visit," said I Say Hun, a Cambodian woman who has been married to her Taiwanese husband for six years.

Cambodia is not the only country that refuses to issue CRNs to national wishing to become Taiwanese citizens.

Japan is another such country, also because of its one-China policy.

"But they have found a way around it," Wu said, adding that "the ministry cannot discriminate against Cambodians."

However, MOFA rebutted the accusation.

"It's really the marriage certificates rather than CRNs that cause the problem," MOFA deputy spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said during a telephone interview with the Taipei Times.

Yeh explained that most Cambodian nationals who applied for Taiwanese citizenship had fake marriage certificates.

"With fake marriage certificates, the Cambodian government couldn't issue them CRNs and Taiwan couldn't grant them citizenship," she said.

In fact, MOFA granted them residency during a period of time regardless of the authenticity of their documents, Yeh said. "But granting citizenship is a whole other issue."

Yeh admitted that Japan also adheres to the one-China policy and wouldn't issue CRNs to its nationals wishing to obtain Taiwanese citizenship.

"But the situation is different," she said.

"First of all, Japanese who married Taiwanese all had authentic marriage certificates, certified by their government," she said.

"Second, the Japanese government would issue written documents to its national requesting CRNs stating that they [the Japanese government] cannot do so because of such and such reason," Yeh said.
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