The recent discovery of several prostitution cases in luxury hotels and apartments has brought to light the large number of Chinese residing and working illegally in the country after having entered the country legally, as most of the prostitutes are of Chinese nationality.
As more Chinese nationals are found to be working illegally as prostitutes — among other jobs — a National Immigration Agency (NIA) official revealed that since 1988, when Chinese nationals were first allowed into the country, 9,330 illegal residents from China have been found to be working as prostitutes, while 17,276 worked illegally in other occupations.
However, the official said that the real number of illegal residents and workers from China is certainly higher than the recorded number.
The NIA official said that initially illegal immigrants from China were smuggled into the country, then, they began to come into the country through “fake marriages,” as the number of cross-strait marriages increased.
As of last month, as many as 150 Chinese women who were born after 1970 have come to Taiwan after getting married to Taiwanese men and disappeared, the NIA said.
Recently, in accordance with government policy to allow Chinese to visit Taiwan for leisure and business, more people are arriving as tourists or businesspeople, but just staying and working illegally, the official said.
In March, more than 100 Chinese nationals were caught working as prostitutes in the landmark Tower 85 in Kaohsiung.
Further investigation found that all of the women came into the country as businesspeople.
“It costs only about 30,000 Chinese yuan [US$4,500] to get forged job certificates and forged invitations,” a Kaohsiung police officer said. “So a lot of [Chinese] who don’t even know how to read and write could become chief executives of some department store or real estate groups in China and come to Taiwan for ‘business.’”
The officer added that many of those who return to China after getting caught would come back again using different names or identities.
NIA officials said that more Chinese choose to come into Taiwan as businesspeople or tourists because it’s much harder to check their identity than through a fake marriage.
Police officers said that, although the government has relaxed entry regulations for Chinese nationals, “they don’t care if there is sufficient manpower to deal with the change.”
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