An infant daycare center in Kaohsiung has been ordered to cease operations for allegedly mistreating children under its care, the city’s Social Affairs Bureau said on Friday.
At least eight children, aged two months to two years old, were found to have been abused from Feb. 10 to 12 at Bei Yujia Infant Daycare Center in Nanzih District (楠梓), the bureau’s deputy director-general Yeh Yu-ju (葉玉如) said.
Based on evidence collected from the center’s surveillance cameras, the children were subjected to improper feeding and other mistreatment, she said.
Photo: CNA
The alleged incident involved three people, including a married couple, identified by their last names Chu (朱) and Yang (楊), and a former employee surnamed Tung (董) who recently resigned from Bei Yujia.
The daycare center is registered under Chu’s name, but is run by Yang, who has been banned from operating or working in a childcare organization for five years due to a prior child abuse record in her previous role as a nanny in 2020, Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Ya-hui (李雅慧) said.
The daycare center was shut down, but then reopened last year under her husband’s name, Lee said, adding that the government should re-evaluate its review system for childcare organizations.
The bureau noticed that the business had re-registered to open at the same location, but approved the application, because it conformed to regulations as it was under Chu’s name, Yeh said.
Yang and Tung were fined NT$480,000 and NT$60,000 respectively for contravening the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法), the bureau said.
In addition to the NT$480,000 fine, Yang was banned from operating or working in a childcare organization for 30 years, Yeh said, adding that the bureau is working to assist families transfer their children to other daycare centers.
Four parents have already filed lawsuits against the center, she said.
The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung has been investigating the case since middle of last month after the incidents of alleged child abuse were reported by the city’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center.
Raids were carried out on Bei Yujia with Chu, Yang and Tung being questioned by police in early this month, prosecutors said.
The couple were later released on bail of NT$40,000 each while Tung was also let go after posting bail of NT$10,000, they added, indicating that the investigation is still ongoing.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS