A review session for the draft immigration office law was disrupted yesterday when various civic groups staged protests outside the Legislative Yuan, calling for public discussion sessions regarding the law and a halt to amending the law.
"The draft immigration office law aims to crack down on illegal immigrants and ignores human rights. Amendment of the law should be put on hold and public discussions should be held before the amendment continues," said Huang Su-en (
According to Huang, the new immigration policy will exacerbate the clampdown on foreign spouses.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"The so-called immigration office is in fact a police headquarters which hunts down girls entering Taiwan through fake marriages," Huang said.
Other groups included the Association for Ri Ri Chun, the Awakening Foundation, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Transnational Sisters' Association.
The Association for Ri Ri Chun said that the immigration office discriminates against unconventional marriages and limits the number of Chinese individuals in the country.
"The government should legalize the sex industry first. Conducting strict interviews with foreign spouses at points of entry is not the solution to end fake marriages. The girls who truly intend to marry Taiwanese men are humiliated by probing into their personal lives during the interviews," said a spokesperson for the association.
Prior to the Organic Laws and Statutes Committee's session reviewing the immigration office draft law, a protester confronted Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) in the committee room.
"Please understand that the purpose of the session today is simply to make a report regarding the status of the draft to the committee. Of course, we are open to having public discussions," Yu said.
The review session for the law was then replaced by a question and answer session.
Chinese Nationalist Party legislator Sun Kuo-hwa (
"Under Article 2 of the draft law, the immigration office will be in charge of nationality policy, immigration policy, repatriation of illegal immigrants and matters regarding residents in China, Hong Kong and Macau. It is a clear case of the Ministry of the Interior trying to expand its rights through the establishment of the immigration office," Sun said.
He said that the expansion of the ministry's rights is a sign of "Green Terror," just like the anti-terrorist policy exercised by the former government.
"This law will streamline and integrate cross-ministerial operations. The immigration office is definitely not an anti-terrorist police command. Besides, what we have here today is only a proposal, it is up to the Executive Yuan to make the final call," Yu said.
According to Yu, the immigration office is an integration of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, the ministry's Population Administration Department, the Bureau of Immigration under the National Police Administration, the Aviation Police, the Harbor Police and the foreign affairs bureaus of various local police stations.
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