As it takes up to four years for immigrant spouses — and six years for immigrant spouses from China — to obtain Republic of China (ROC) national ID cards, a social welfare group said it has discovered that some such partners have falsely reported themselves as domestic abuse victims so they could get divorced and yet be able to stay in Taiwan to work.
“My Vietnamese wife only thought of me as a money maker, and as soon as she discovered that I had no more money, she left me, and left the children to me,” a man surnamed Huang (黃) said.
According to Tsai Chun-yu (蔡濬宇), the head of a single-parent family assistance group “Kangaroo and Penguins’ Home,” Huang’s case is not an isolated one.
He said that some immigrant spouses would upset their Taiwanese husbands on purpose, hoping that their husbands would beat them. If that happened, they would then apply for a protection order from the court and later apply for residency.
Tsai said that out of the more than 100 single-parent families they have worked with, about 70 percent of transnational marriages ended in divorce. Among the divorces, “intentionally triggered domestic abuse” was an important cause.
Chen Hsin-nian (陳新年), 70, said he spent NT$300,000 (US$10,000) so his son could marry a Vietnamese woman nicknamed Hsiao Fen (小芬). At first, Fen was very nice and he gave her NT$10,000 per month to wire back home. After Fen gave birth to two children, he stopped giving her a monthly allowance because of the increased financial burden. Unexpectedly, Fen “created” a case of domestic abuse and left home as soon as she obtained her national ID card, never to return, he said.
“Fen came to Taiwan only for money,” Chen said.
Huang Chi (黃吉), 60, said that her Vietnamese daughter-in-law did not “create” domestic abuse, but she left home as soon as she obtained her national ID and took NT$80,000 from the family bank account before leaving.
Tsai said that after so many years of working with single--parent families, she found Taiwanese men to be in a very pitiful state, since in many cases they are the real victims, but are considered perpetrators under the law.
A judge at the Keelung District Court, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he has noticed this phenomenon as well. The judge said that immigrant spouses who accused their partners of abuse would always bring injury diagnosis certificates with them so judges then have to issue protection orders. When the immigrant spouses get the -order, they can apply for long-term residency from the National Immigration Agency.
When they get their residency, the judge said, they would file for divorce with the court, and these divorces are often approved because of the injury diagnosis and the husbands admit to the abuse.
Tsai said such cases not only happened among marriages where one spouse was from Southeast Asia, but also when one was from from China.
She said that one Chinese immigrant spouse nicknamed Hsiao Li (小麗) admitted to her that she took the “shortcut” because she didn’t want to wait six years for her ROC national ID card.
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