Immigration authorities yesterday said they have located an Indonesian migrant worker wanted on suspicion of identity theft whose whereabouts had been unknown since she tested positive for HIV.
A specialized unit from the National Immigration Agency (NIA) found the 38-year-old pregnant woman in Taoyuan early yesterday, immigration agents said.
She is expected to be transferred to the Miaoli District Prosecutors’ Office following allegations that she committed fraud by assuming the identity of another person, they said.
Ching Shao-an (荊少安), head of the NIA’s specialized operation squad in Taoyuan, said the woman arrived in Taiwan to work as a caregiver in July last year, but in December left her job to join her Indonesian boyfriend, also an absconded migrant worker, who lives in Yunlin County.
The woman last month discovered she was pregnant and decided to have an abortion, Ching said.
When seeking an abortion at a Yunlin clinic on June 8, she allegedly used an Alien Resident Certificate and a National Health Insurance card borrowed from an Indonesian acquaintance on the pretext of helping her obtain a SIM card, the NIA’s Yunlin County Service Center said.
Her abortion request was refused by the doctor on the grounds that she was already six months pregnant, the NIA said.
The clinic notified Yunlin County’s Public Health Bureau after the results of a blood test showed that the woman was HIV positive, it said.
However, the health bureau said that when it tried to contact the woman about the test results, it instead reached the acquaintance whose identity documents she had allegedly stolen.
An investigation into the woman found that she had four Taiwanese boyfriends, bureau officials said, adding that they were concerned the virus could spread given the difficulties authorities are having in identifying the men.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to