The American Institute in Taipei (AIT) has recently identified more than 90 suspicious cases in which people may have given children’s personal details to human smuggling syndicates to be used for the purpose of fraudulent passport and visa applications, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs Director General Lo Yu-chung (羅由中) said that Taiwan and the US had established Principles for Cooperation on Improving Travel Security, which can be seen as a prelude for Taiwanese being able to visit the US without a visa.
However, Lo said that for Taiwan to join the US’ visa waiver program, some problems still need to be addressed, such as reducing the number of fraudulent passport applications for children under 14.
Such children can apply for a passport by having parents or legal guardians provide a copy of their household registration, photos and a visa application.
Lo said that in the past few years cases have been found where human smuggling syndicates offer parents money to apply for passports using the photographs of another child using the identity of their own child. The passports are then used to apply for US visas.
The AIT has warned the ministry of the existence of such cases and statistics for the final six months of last year show that the AIT blocked more than 90 suspicious applications. As a result, the institute may ask some applicants under 14 to go through the application process in person.
People selling identities to smugglers are subject to up to five years in prison or NT$100,000 in fines.
Lo said that as the fines are potentially “less than the profits,” it was hard to deter parents from committing these crimes. He said the ministry had asked the judiciary to look into the problem.
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