A proposed amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) would make foreign spouses more vulnerable to threats from their Taiwanese spouse, activists said yesterday, calling for the bill to be put on hold until the offending portions are dropped.
“We feel this is an odious way to amend the law, because the new rules will lead to the creation of more stateless persons,” New Immigrants Labor Rights Association director Hsiao Hsiao-tsui (肖小翠) said, citing a provision which drops the time limit for revoking citizenship of foreign spouses whose marriages are found to be fake.
The law already allows citizenship to be revoked within five years for illegal behavior or fraud, but the amendment would drop the five-year time limit for citizenship acquired through a fake marriage.
“The problem is that when marriage conflict erupts some husbands will ‘turn themselves in,’ stating that a real marriage was fake because they want to inflict pain on their wife and drive her out of the country. They can also use this to threaten their wives because all it takes is one sentence for the wife’s citizenship to be revoked,” she said.
“Husbands are liable to be fined depending upon how much money they earned from the fake marriage, but they can always claim that they did not receive any money,” she said.
However, there is a possibility of a prison sentence of up to three months for the husband, subject to a court’s discretion, she added.
“If a husband ‘turns himself in,’ he faces relatively little risk, but the wife faces losing her citizenship, insurance, social benefits and the right to work. Because she has already been forced to renounce her original citizenship, she becomes illegal and stateless at the same time,” Hsiao 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
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
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
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