The government will tackle human trafficking with comprehensive legislation aimed at identifying victims and providing better protection, an official said on Friday in a video conference with US officials.
A draft bill is being worked on and is expected to be placed on the agenda of the Legislative Yuan in September, said Chien Hu Hui-juan, Immigration Affairs Division director of the National Immigration Agency (NIA), at the conference.
Chien said the bill is expected to be the first in Taiwan that coordinates inter-agency collaboration by the Council of Labor Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Police Agency, the Coast Guard Administration and various social groups and non-government organizations to identify criminals and victims of human trafficking.
The initiative was welcomed by the US. Mark Lagon, director of the State Department's Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons, praised the government's response to multi-dimensional trafficking since last year. Its response included the creation of a national plan of action and an inter-agency committee, the drafting of legislative amendments to the immigration law and increased prosecution of trafficking crimes, he said.
Lagon, who spoke to about 100 conference attendees from Washington, Taipei and Kaohsiung, stressed the importance of adequate legislation that addresses all of the elements found in modern day slavery, saying that a comprehensive law is the "gold standard" and a "critical tool."
Criminal law alone is not enough to cover all facets of the trafficking problem because "it only punishes the criminals," said Mohamed Mattar, a professor at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Collaboration between law enforcement and social care groups is instrumental in combating human trafficking by rescuing victims, said March Bell, senior special counsel for trafficking issues in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice.
The comprehensive bill is looking to do just that, Chien said. However, all the agencies involved in the program have to avoid departmentalism, and prosecutors need to take the leading roles, which is not the case at present, she said.
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
Snow this morning fell on Alishan for the first time in seven years, as a strong continental cold air mass sent temperatures plunging across Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The Alishan weather station, located at an elevation of about 2,200m in central Taiwan, recorded snowfall from 8:55am to 9:15am, when the temperature dropped to about 1°C, the CWA said. With increased moisture and low temperatures in the high-altitude Alishan area, the conditions were favorable for snow, CWA forecaster Tsai Yi-chi (蔡伊其) said. The last time snow fell at the Alishan weather station was on Jan. 10, 2018, while graupel fell there
RSS