The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday pledged to crack down on marriage-broker firms and consider legal revisions to eliminate loopholes that allow illegal operations to stay in business.
The law prohibits matchmakers from offering their service for profit or demanding compensation, and any marriage broker found to be operating illegally will have their license revoked, the agency said.
The statement followed a report by Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine that more than 30 Taiwanese men said that they had been cheated by marriage brokers claiming they could get spouses for them from China, Vietnam or Indonesia.
The men said three transnational matchmaking associations that had previously been certified by the agency conspired to swindle hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars in betrothal money from them, the weekly said.
After the men paid the money, their would-be brides fled shortly after entering Taiwan or never arrived, claiming that they had not received the betrothal money, the report said.
The men asked the brokers to take responsibility, but were told it was the women’s problem, the report said.
The men have little legal recourse in Taiwan, as they often handed the money to their would-be brides overseas; all they can do is to file a civil suit asking for compensation from the marriage brokers, the report said.
The agency said the three marriage brokers named by the weekly lost their licenses between 2016 and last year, and their names have been posted on its Web site.
However, the companies appeared to have stayed in business by changing their names.
It was considering drafting revisions to the law to close the loophole that allows brokers whose licenses are revoked to establish new agencies and apply for new licenses, the agency said.
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