Another daring detention center escape in Ilan County involving 10 illegal Vietnamese immigrants yesterday rocked the National Immigration Agency (NIA), an agency press release said.
The agency, which oversees the center, is still reeling from a string of scandals this month, including two other escapes from an Ilan City detention center involving six illegals.
Yesterday's escape occurred in the early hours at an Ilan County detention center after a group of Vietnamese women smuggled a soldering iron into their quarters and melted back the bars over a window, creating a small hole through which to escape, agency deputy director Steve Wu (
"The hole was about as big as a piece of A4 paper," Wu said by telephone yesterday.
He didn't elaborate on how the women were able to get their hands on the soldering iron.
Small, thin and scrappy, the 10 detainees in the quarters slipped out into the night amid rain and wind from the approaching typhoon, and were met by getaway vehicles waiting near the center, Wu said.
The escapees, who had been involved in a human-trafficking gang, had phoned an accomplice on the outside from within the center on Wednesday, one day before the break, to arrange for transportation, he said.
"They are very smart," he said. "Nobody expected them to do this."
Busy preparing for Typhoon Sepat as it makes landfall, the Ministry of the Interior has yet to issue a statement on the matter, Wu said, adding that "punishments would be doled out to agency officials," perhaps including agency director Wu Chen-chi (
The immigration agency falls under the ministry.
Despite the weather, authorities in Ilan, working with agency officials, had located one of the escapees yesterday not far from the center, he said. The agency is coordinating a search with police for the other nine escapees, as well as escapees who broke out of the Ilan City detention center earlier this month.
On Aug. 1, five Vietnamese illegals at that center formed a human chain in their quarters at night, reaching up to a duct through which they climbed to the center's roof.
Authorities in Sansia Township (
Asked why detention centers in Ilan were the sites for all three escapes, Steve Wu said that escapees in the Aug. 1 case and yesterday's case were all members of the same trafficking gang, which smuggles or traffics illegal laborers from Vietnam into the country.
The escapees in the Aug. 1 case had likely helped yesterday's escapees, he said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS