Authorities were conducting a manhunt yesterday after four Vietnamese workers escaped from a jail in Yilan County on Sunday. The four allegedly escaped from the National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) Yilan Detention Center by using tools to break through a window made of iron bars, they said.
The four originally came to Taiwan to work at a factory in New Taipei City, agency officials said.
However, they absconded and were later caught by police working illegally in other jobs, they said.
The four had been detained at the center while awaiting processing of their cases for deportation.
The center in Yilan’s Dongshan Township (冬山) mainly houses runaway migrant workers and foreigners who have broken the law and are awaiting deportation, pending completion of judicial procedures.
There are other detention centers for foreigners in Taiwan, and most are administered by the agency’s Detention Affairs Corps, along with the Ministry of Justice’s Agency of Corrections.
Officials from both agencies are investigating the incident, after beefing up security measures at the Yilan center, amid speculation that the four Vietnamese had “inside help.”
The National Police Agency has alerted its units across the nation to track down the whereabouts of the four Vietnamese escapees.
It was the second major security breach involving Vietnamese nationals within a week.
A 33-year-old Vietnamese worker, Tran Van Hieu, who has been on a “wanted list” since 2010, escaped on Monday last week, leaving the nation’s aviation police and border control corps to face scrutiny.
He exited Taiwan and boarded a flight bound for Hanoi at Taichung Airport during a power outage, which rendered flight crews and border control desk officials unable to check his details with an online system.
As for the Yilan incident, agency officials said the four Vietnamese men must have gotten hold of a hand tool known as an “expansion bolt,” which they used to remove screws and bolts from an iron window in their detention room on the second floor.
Center officials said the four must have waited until 4am on Sunday to remove the window, sneaked out through another outlet window and landed on the roof of facility’s kitchen, from which they leapt to the ground and scurried to a 6m-tall concrete outer wall.
There is a 1m gap between the outer wall and a housing unit wall, and barbed wire on top of the wall.
“It is unbelievable how they did it. They must have climbed up the wall like Spider-Man. Then, despite suffering some cuts from the barbed wire, they jumped from the 6m-high wall onto grass below before escaping,” one NIA official said.
Another official said the men must have come from north Vietnam and might be army soldiers trained in field combat.
“Most people cannot scale a wall that high, and even if they managed to do so, leaping off a 6m wall would break a person’s legs,” the official said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese