The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted eight people, including a Vietnamese, for trafficking Indonesian women to Taiwan to perform sex work.
Prosecutors called for more than NT$3.62 million (US$117,808) of illegal profits to be confiscated, and listed an Indonesian woman, nicknamed “Luna,” as wanted for assisting the group’s operation in Indonesia.
According to the indictment, a Vietnamese woman, surnamed Vo, in 2023 formed a human trafficking ring with Luna and a Taiwanese man, surnamed Hu (胡).
Photo: Wu Sheng-ru, Taipei Times
The group lured victims with Facebook advertisements offering “high-paying jobs” as spa workers, karaoke hostesses or sex workers in Taiwan, it said.
However, the victims were sent to rented apartments in Taipei and New Taipei City, where they were forced to work as prostitutes for more than 12 hours a day and paid NT$200 to NT$500.
To prevent the women from seeking help or escaping, the group threatened them with having to work off the debt accrued from their trip to Taiwan.
The women initially traveled to Japan as tourist groups to obtain a Japanese visa, which allowed them to enter Taiwan on for 14 days visa-free as tourists.
After arriving in Taiwan, the group confiscated the women’s passports and forced them to pose for erotic ads.
One woman died from heart failure in July last year, and reportedly expressed her unwillingness to return to her traffickers on her death bed while in hospital, the indictment said.
In February, one woman escaped with the help of a male client, and went to the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, where she revealed details of the sex trafficking case, it said.
Prosecutors charged members of the group with human trafficking and engaging in organized crime, while seeking a minimum prison sentence of six years for Vo and Hu, and two years for two Taiwanese men surnamed Chen (陳) and Chien (簡), who rented rooms for the ring.
Four others — all Taiwanese and surnamed Huang (黃), Fang (方), Cho (卓) and Chen (陳) — were also indicted for their involvement in the group’s daily operations, which included transporting the victims and soliciting business, the indictment said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
RSS