China’s public security authorities promised yesterday to maintain close contact with Taiwanese police in dealing with cross-border fraud involving Taiwanese suspects, based on a cross-Taiwan Strait agreement on cracking down on crime and judicial assistance.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security reiterated its cooperation agreement with its Taiwanese counterpart, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, in the fight against international and cross-strait crime.
It said Taiwanese and Chinese police have been discussing cooperation on a high-profile fraud case involving 14 Taiwanese suspects who were deported from the Philippines to Beijing on Feb. 2, despite Taipei’s protests.
Taiwanese police officials flew to Beijing on Thursday to discuss the case and were talking with their Beijing counterparts on how to work together on investigations into the telecommunications fraud involving Chinese and Taiwanese suspects in which all of the victims were Chinese citizens, the ministry said.
The Beijing police in charge of the case briefed the Taiwanese officials on the progress of the interrogation of the Taiwanese suspects and have shown them evidence of illegal conduct, it said.
Beijing police said relatives of the Taiwanese suspects have been given permission to visit them in Beijing, a statement that was later confirmed in Taipei by Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌).
Chen said on Friday that Beijing had agreed to the visits in accordance with the cross-strait agreement.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese authorities said they were considering a relaxation of a measure imposed during the diplomatic spat with the Philippines over the deportation that critics have said technically bars Philippine workers from entering Taiwan.
One of the measures, announced by Taiwan’s representative office in the Philippines on Feb. 10, requires that Philippine citizens submit their Social Security System Card as part of their application to work in Taiwan.
The new rule has amounted to “a technical freeze on Philippine workers,” as Manila stopped issuing the card a long time ago, the Taiwan International Workers Association and other groups that support workers’ rights said in a joint statement on Sunday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman James Chang (章計平) said yesterday that the ministry would “make an overall assessment” of its policies and their implementation regarding regulations on foreign workers’ applications.
The Philippines has asked Taiwan to accept other forms of social security documents for Philippine workers, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Government agencies “are currently studying the possibility” of carrying out the request, the official said.
Among the other punitive measures Taiwan took after the deportation of its nationals to China included lengthening the process for screening applications by Philippine nationals seeking to work in Taiwan to four months, from no more than 12 days previously.
That move was also seen as a temporary freeze on hiring new Philippine workers.
There are more than 77,000 Philippine migrant workers in Taiwan, 20 percent of the total number of foreign workers.
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