Yunlin County prosecutors this week completed their probe into the adoption of 17 Vietnamese children by families in central Taiwan, saying the suspects were not engaged in human trafficking and charging them only with document forgery.
“We found that all of the 17 Vietnamese children were relatives of the Vietnamese women who had acquired [Taiwanese] citizenship by marriage,” Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office chief prosecutor Huang Yi-hua (黃怡華) said on Wednesday.
These are not cases of child smuggling or international human trafficking, Huang added.
“Evidence indicated that the US$3,000 to US$7,000 paid by each of the Vietnamese families was for obtaining forged birth certificates and processing the documents in Vietnam, and was not payment related to human trafficking activities,” she said.
“Also, it cannot be established that the Vietnamese children who came to Taiwan were brought here solely for the purpose of working, or that they were paid wages that were not commensurate with the nature of their work,” she said.
Twenty-two suspects were charged with document forgery, 14 of whom are former Vietnamese citizens who came to Taiwan through marriage.
Debate over illegal adoption was sparked by start of the investigation started last year, when foreign affairs officials reported receipt of counterfeit documents from a couple applying for a Taiwanese passport and birth certificate for a child who was born in Vietnam.
After investigators raided the residences of the adoptive families, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) released a statement claiming to have cracked an international human trafficking ring, which was reported by most media outlets.
Further investigation revealed that the families adopted children from Vietnam aged between five and 13 who were helping out on their farms and tea plantations.
Some of the children were found to be attending local schools.
At the time, immigrant advocacy group Taiwan International Family Association accused the agency of jumping to conclusions by announcing it was a child smuggling ring involving forced child labor.
The group said it was adoption by families who were certain the kids would be taken care of.
The prosecutors’ conclusion concurred with the statements by the group, saying: “The purpose [of the adoptions] was for the Vietnamese children to live in better economic conditions, which drove the families to produce forged birth certificates to enable adoption by relatives [in Taiwan].”
The indictment for document forgery and dropping of charges for human trafficking was seen as a rebuke of the NIA officials’ handling of the matter.
“We urge the NIA and foreign affairs officials to be more prudent in their scrutiny of documents when handling applications by foreign nationals entering our country,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
Some of the children involved in the illegal adoption scheme have since obtained citizenship, but prosecutors said that they might be repatriated back to Vietnam, depending on the outcome of the trial.
They will be permitted to live with their adopted families for the time being, the prosecutors said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS