Judicial authorities are investigating the alleged sale of Republic of China passports to China-based gangs.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office last week indicted 13 people, including alleged operation heads Huang Shih-hsien (黃世賢) and Chiu Cheng-wen (邱政文), for alleged passport fraud.
In 2018, border control officials at international airports in Rome and Madrid alerted Taipei that they had stopped Chinese nationals who were using altered Taiwanese passports to enter the nations.
Photo: CNA
Taoyuan prosecutors coordinated with police and the National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) Border Affairs Corps in an investigation, leading the indictment of Huang, 48, and Chiu, 46, and the seizure of Taiwanese passports and other travel documents — including Chinese-issued “Taiwan Compatriot Permits” — for about a dozen people.
Eleven others were indicted for allegedly selling passports, contravening the Passport Act (護照條例), as well as breaches of the Criminal Code for allegedly causing a public official to make false records in public documents, and use of forged or altered documents.
Huang and Chiu made a lot of money through alleged illegal sales of Taiwanese passports to Chinese groups by seeking out impoverished people and paying them to apply for travel documents, the indictment said.
The case has damaged the credibility and international trust of the Taiwan passport, and compromised border controls and national security, it said.
From 2015 to 2019, Huang and Chiu would visit Taipei Railway Station and public parks, including Wanhua District’s (萬華) Bangka Park (艋舺公園), seeking out impoverished or homeless people, prosecutors said.
The pair would pay people up to NT$25,000 to apply for a passport, with help from travel agency staff who also assisted with applying for documents to travel to China, prosecutors said.
The people they recruited were also given cash to buy clothes and given tickets to fly to China, prosecutors said.
While in China, the recruits were taken to apply for bank accounts, they said, adding that they handed over their passports upon their return to Taiwan.
Huang and Chiu then sold the travel documents to Chinese groups for up to NT$300,000, prosecutors said, adding that the passports could be resold for up to US$50,000.
NIA officials said that the illegal passport trade is lucrative in China and there is high demand for Taiwanese passports, due to the nation’s reciprocal visa-free agreements with more than 100 countries.
Taiwanese passports are highly sought after by Chinese officials and businesspeople who are facing charges for economic crimes, or others facing prosecution and seeking to escape abroad, as well as wealthy families to move their assets outside China or seeking entry into the US, Canada or European countries, the NIA officials said.
Moreover, Chinese intelligence officials carry Taiwanese passports as cover, authorities said.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan
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