INPUT FOR 2007 TIP REPORT - TAIWAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 35 TAIPEI 000740



SIPDIS



SENSITIVE

SIPDIS



STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EAP/RSP



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: PGOV, TW

SUBJECT: INPUT FOR 2007 TIP REPORT - TAIWAN



REF: 06 STATE 202745



1. (SBU) This is AIT/T's 2006-07 Trafficking in Persons (TIP)

report. The report is presented according to reftel

sections, beginning with paragraph 27 A.



27 A. Overview of Taiwan's Activities to Eliminate

Trafficking in Persons



Taiwan is a source country for a limited number of women

trafficked to Japan. Taiwanese citizens do not need visas to

visit Japan and can legally travel to Japan via commercial

flights. According to the International Police division of

Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, Taiwanese women are

lured to Japan by newspaper advertisements in Taiwan placed

by local employment agencies with ties to organized crime

rings in Japan. The ads promise employment and free

transportation to Japan. Once the Taiwanese women arrive in

Japan, they are forced into prostitution or other forms of

labor and threatened with bodily harm to prevent them from

going to authorities. One officer in Taiwan's Representative

Office in Tokyo is charged with cooperating with Japanese

authorities to identify Taiwanese trafficking victims and

return them to Taiwan. The Taiwan National Immigration

Agency (NIA) reported that 59 female trafficking victims were

returned to Taiwan in 2006. This is an increase over the

total 68 women returned to Taiwan during 2004 and 2005. NIA

was unable to provide an official estimate of the total

number of Taiwanese women trafficked to Japan in recent

years.



There is reason to believe that Taiwan is also a source

country for a limited number of women trafficked to the

United States. Over the past ten months, AIT's consular

section fraud prevention unit identified at least 100

Taiwanese women who appear to have traveled to the U.S. in

2006 to work as prostitutes. All were female except one, and

most were between 23 and 40 years of age. Ongoing

investigations by Diplomatic Security and U.S. local law

enforcement suggest that most of the participants knew they

would be working as prostitutes and were willing to be

transported to the U.S. for that purpose. However, ongoing

investigations suggest some participants may have been

subjected to exploitative working conditions to which they

did not consent, including forced confinement or relocation,

confiscation of travel documents, and withholding of pay.



Taiwan is not a transit point for a significant number of

internationally trafficked persons. Taiwan is a transit

point for a small number of illegal Mainland Chinese seeking

to enter the United States. Taiwan criminal gangs use

fraudulent Taiwan travel documents and Taiwan-operated

vessels to smuggle these illegal immigrants. Although these

illegal aliens are voluntary migrants, some of them may

become trafficking victims as a result of debt bondage,

forced prostitution, or other schemes upon reaching Taiwan or

the United States.



Taiwan is primarily a destination country for Southeast Asian

and PRC men and women trafficked into forced labor or sexual

exploitation. Traffickers also use fraudulent marriages

between Taiwanese men and PRC or Southeast Asian women

(primarily Vietnam),to traffick women into Taiwan for labor

and sex exploitation.



Taiwan's geographic proximity to the PRC and Southeast Asia,

large demand for foreign workers, and lucrative sex industry

provide opportunities for traffickers to exploit victims.

Many female trafficking victims are forced into prostitution.

Both men and women are subjected to forced labor or

involuntary servitude. In many cases, a victim's passport is

seized, and he or she may be subjected to physical abuse or

other forms of coercion to prevent them from attempting

escape or seeking assistance from the authorities.



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According to the National Immigration Agency (NIA),1,596 PRC

citizens (925 men and 671 women) and 1,701 Southeast Asian

citizens were deported from Taiwan in 2006. More than

340,000 foreign workers and 370,000 foreign spouses live in

Taiwan. These large numbers make it difficult to obtain

reliable estimates of the number of persons being trafficked

within Taiwan.



According to women's rights groups involved in rehabilitating

girls and women rescued from Taiwan's sex industry, the

number of trafficking victims under 18 years of age is low.

According to NIA, as of February 2007, the 14 PRC women held

at the Ilan Detention Center are all adults. There is a

clear consensus among government officials and NGOs that

trafficking of minors for prostitution has declined

dramatically since the passage of the 1995 Child and Youth

Sexual Transaction Prevention Act (CYSTPA). However, there

were continuing reports of a small number of teenage girls

being forced into prostitution after responding to misleading

employment advertisements.



The Ministry of Interior (MOI),Ministry of Justice (MOJ),

National Immigration Agency (NIA) (formerly the Immigration

Bureau of the National Police Agency),National Police

Administration (NPA),Council for Labor Affairs (CLA),

academics, human rights groups, women's rights groups and

advocacy groups for foreign labor and foreign spouses are the

primary sources for information about trafficking in persons.

These sources are all generally reliable and often cooperate

with each other to combat trafficking. These sources agree

that it is extremely difficult to estimate the number of

trafficked persons in Taiwan.



27 B. General Overview and Changes



The Taiwan Coast Guard (CGA) intercepted fewer PRC immigrants

being smuggled to Taiwan by boat in 2006. During the first

ten months of the year, 294 men and 31 women were intercepted

while trying to enter Taiwan illegally by boat. In 2005, 369

men and 72 women were caught before landing on Taiwan.



CGA officials reported that illegal Chinese male immigrants

are seeking construction jobs in Taiwan (women cannot legally

perform certain kinds of construction work in Taiwan).

According to CGA, most male PRC illegal immigrants seeking

these jobs come to Taiwan under the guise of working aboard

Taiwan fishing boats. Once the boats dock in Taiwan, the PRC

men disappear. In September 2006 the Ministry of Justice

(MOJ) reported that the whereabouts of more than half of the

2,000 Chinese fishermen hired by Suao Harbor fishing

companies were unknown. Law enforcement officials suspected

the missing fishermen had found illegal work inside Taiwan.



The number of female illegal PRC immigrants smuggled by boat

has dropped, CGA officials say, because smugglers connected

to Taiwan's sex industry are using other channels, including

fraudulent marriages, to circumvent increased coastal

patrols. PRC citizens can only legally enter Taiwan to

conduct tourism or business, or to be the spouse of a

Taiwanese citizen.



Ninety percent of illegal PRC immigrants, male and female,

come from Fujian province, situated only 90 miles across the

Taiwan Strait. According to the NIA, of those illegal PRC

immigrants apprehended on Taiwan soil in 2006, 75 percent

were found in northern Taiwan. Seventy-three percent of PRC

illegal immigrants arrested in Taiwan were found after living

in Taiwan six months or less. Almost half of those detained

admitted to performing some kind of temporary labor while in

Taiwan.



Human smuggling groups in Sichuan and Fujian provinces

actively recruit men, women, and girls willing to work in



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Taiwan. Others, seeking economic opportunities, may initiate

contact with the smugglers in hopes of finding better work in

Taiwan. Chinese fishing boats are used to transport

passengers to certain locations in the Taiwan Strait, where

they are transferred to Taiwanese fishing boats. Smugglers

often force their passengers to discard luggage before

boarding, in order to be able to fit more people into the

boats. After landing in Taiwan, most of the men and some of

the women will seek illegal work in the Taiwan economy.

Other women will be delivered to secret locations, where

auctions arranged by sex traffickers will take place.

Brothel operators and others from Taiwan's commercial sex

industry attend the auctions, where they "buy" women for

their illegal operations. After a woman has been sold, she

is transported to a designated workplace, or to an apartment

near the area where she will work.



According to the National Police Agency, many PRC women know

they are coming to Taiwan to work as prostitutes, but many do

not. In many cases, both those women who volunteer to work

as prostitutes and those who do not are subjected to

exploitative working conditions, physical or mental abuse,

confinement, and other forms of coercion. NGOs told AIT that

women who are smuggled to Taiwan must pay between US

$3,500-6,500 in fees to smugglers, and that local sex or

labor traffickers can sell each woman for between US

$5,000-6,000.



Taiwan continued to improve the protections and services

afforded to trafficked PRC women. NGOs report that the law

requires police and other law enforcement officials to

consider all girls under 18 years of age to be trafficking

victims, not criminals. Once trafficking victims are taken

into custody, police and other government officials are

required to protect them from further harm. During the

initial intake process at the one remaining Detention

Facility in Ilan, immigration authorities apply a

standardized TIP victim screening system, which considers

information from the initial police interview, the

circumstances of the migrant's arrival in Taiwan, and other

evidence obtained by investigators. After the initial intake

is completed, a second interview is conducted with the

assistance of social workers to ensure that victims are

properly identified and afforded appropriate protections.

Trafficking victims have regular access to NGOs and social

workers, and recreational activities are provided and

encouraged. Both NGOs and religious social workers visit

victims at the Ilan facility at least twice a week, and can

visit more frequently if needed. Taiwan authorities

encourage trafficked women to cooperate with officials to

prosecute traffickers.



NGOs told AIT that immigration officials are increasingly

distinguishing PRC trafficking victims from PRC criminals,

and affording victims better protection and treatment.

According to the Taiwan Women's' Rescue Foundation, when PRC

citizens are repatriated to China, the Taiwan immigration

officials notify PRC authorities which individuals were

victims of trafficking. NGOs told AIT that, although there

is still considerable room for improvement, the Taiwan

government is increasingly willing to incorporate NGO

suggestions into its anti-trafficking policy and training

programs, and law enforcement officials are consulting NGO

representatives on difficult cases more frequently.



NGOs were invited by the Taiwan government to participate in

drafting the "Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Action

Plan" (the "Plan") issued on November 8, 2006. NGO

representatives, academics, and foreign and local experts

participated in eight separate meetings with senior-level

Taiwan government officials from twelve different ministries

and agencies, including MOI, MOJ, NIA, CLA, and NPA. While

NGOs criticized the Action Plan for offering too few specific

changes, NGO representatives continue to participate in



TAIPEI 00000740 004 OF 035





bi-monthly Task Force meetings convened by the MOI to

supervise and evaluate ongoing anti-trafficking efforts.



The Taiwan government acknowledges that fraudulent marriages

are commonly used by traffickers to introduce foreign women

into Taiwan for labor or sexual exploitation. Many women

from China, Vietnam, and other Southeast Asian countries are

willing to marry Taiwan men in order to enjoy Taiwan's higher

standard of living, and to earn money to assist relatives

back home. Traffickers disguised as marriage brokers exploit

such motivations and lure many women to Taiwan in order to

force them into prostitution or exploitative labor upon their

arrival. Other women may knowingly enter into a false

marriage in hopes of finding gainful employment in Taiwan.

These women do not intend to become prostitutes, but upon

arrival are often coerced by traffickers into the sex trade

or forced labor. In some cases, women, particularly from the

PRC, knowingly enter into false marriages in order to work in

Taiwan's sex industry. These women are often subjected to

exploitative working conditions to which they did not

consent, including forced confinement or relocation, physical

or mental abuse, and unfair withholding of pay.



Traffickers of PRC women prefer using fraudulent marriages

over smuggling by boat because it is safer and carries a

lower risk of detection. Trafficking syndicates in Vietnam,

Indonesia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries use

fake marriages to circumvent restrictions on certain classes

of laborers, or to introduce women into Taiwan's sex

industry.



Some Taiwan men are willing to serve as bogus husbands

because of the financial rewards, despite the risks

associated with getting caught. In facilitating a "bride's"

residence in Taiwan, a typical "husband" can receive a free

round trip to the bride's home country and as much as US

$1,000 per month for up to one year. Under current fraud and

forgery laws, a man convicted of fraudulent marriage can face

up to three years in prison. He may also be convicted of

aiding and abetting crimes furthered by the sham marriage,

including forced prostitution and pimping. A defendant

convicted of marrying a PRC woman under false pretenses can

be charged with violating the "Act Governing Relations

Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area"

(the Taiwan-PRC Relations Act),and can face a sentence of

one to seven years. Typical sentences for first-time

offenders range between one to one-and-a-half years. Many

traffickers solicit mentally or physically disabled or

destitute men to serve as husbands. Courts often punish such

men with sentences of less than one year. Penalties for

traffickers are higher, but traffickers themselves rarely

enter into fraudulent marriages. In 2004, one trafficker was

sentenced to seven years for brokering several false

marriages to traffick PRC women into Taiwan in violation of

Taiwan-PRC Relations Act. The conviction was overturned on

appeal in 2007.



According to MOI statistics, in 2006 one quarter of new

marriages in Taiwan involved a foreign-born mother. There are

approximately 133,000 spouses from Southeast Asia (100,000 of

them from Vietnam) and another 233,000 spouses from the PRC

living in Taiwan.



Non-PRC citizen foreign spouses can apply for residency

immediately, which entitles them to work legally in Taiwan.

They cannot apply for full citizenship until they have

resided in Taiwan for three consecutive years, and usually do

not obtain citizenship until their fourth year of residence

in Taiwan. PRC spouses are eligible to apply for dependent

resident status after two years, but cannot apply for

permanent residence or permission to work until after six

years in Taiwan. A foreign spouse without citizenship risks

deportation if he or she divorces or does not live with his

or her Taiwanese spouse. Traffickers use the threat of



TAIPEI 00000740 005 OF 035





deportation to coerce and control women brought into Taiwan

under the guise of marriage.



Taiwan authorities have taken significant steps to discourage

traffickers from abusing the spouse-visa program. All

foreign spouses must first apply to a Taiwan Bureau of

Consular Affairs (BOCA) Overseas Office to obtain a visitor's

visa to enter Taiwan. In September 2003, Taiwan reinstated

the face-to-face interview requirement for all PRC spouses

seeking a visitor's visa to enter Taiwan. Beginning in

January 2005, face-to-face interviews were required of all

prospective spouses from Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, the

Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Interviews must be

conducted by two BOCA staff members, chosen at random and

rotated regularly to prevent collusion with applicants. Once

in Taiwan, each foreign spouse must apply for an Alien

Residency Card (ARC). At this stage, BOCA officials will

interview the foreign spouse again, and his or her putative

wife or husband. The NIA maintains 39 interview rooms in

Taiwan's five major cities, two international airports, and

on Kinmen and Matsu islands, adjacent to the PRC's Fujian

province. Applicants found to be in sham marriages are

immediately deported.



The face-to-face interview requirement has helped to detect

and deter fraudulent "marriages of convenience." From 2004

to 2005, the number of visitor's visas issued to Vietnamese

spouses dropped from 11,953 to 7,062. In 2006, the total

number of visas issued to Vietnamese spouses dropped again,

to 3,864. The refusal rate for Vietnamese applicants has

climbed from 10 percent in 2004 to 37 percent now. PRC

marriage visa applicants have dropped by a third over the

past two years, and refusal rates have climbed from 12

percent to above 30 percent.



The Taiwan authorities have also adopted other measures to

cut down on the trafficking of foreign spouses. In 2003, the

legislature amended the Taiwan-PRC Relations Act to increase

penalties for Taiwanese entering into fraudulent marriages

with PRC citizens. In May 2005, the Taiwan government

stipulated that Vietnamese women marrying Taiwan men must be

at least 20 years old, and the age difference between the

bride and groom must be less than 20 years. The number of

arranged marriages between Vietnamese women and Taiwan men

dropped by 40 percent over the next several months. Also in

2005, the government began requiring both the foreign and

Taiwan spouse to attend a mandatory two-hour session on their

respective rights under Taiwan law. In June 2006, the Taiwan

government banned the formation of new cross-border

matchmaking companies, and announced that existing firms

would be subject to stricter regulations and monitoring. In

October 2006, a hotline was established to provide consulting

services to foreign spouses in Chinese, English, Indonesian,

Thai, and Vietnamese. Over the past year, Taiwan authorities

have also increased the number and frequency of surprise

visits and phone calls to check on the whereabouts of persons

involved in suspect cross-border marriages.



The Taiwan government does not have reliable statistics on

the number of women trafficked into Taiwan through fraudulent

marriage. According to a November 2006 report from the

Immigration Bureau of the National Police Agency (now part of

the recently-established National Immigration Agency),over

the past three years immigration officials discovered 16,819

PRC citizens in fraudulent marriages with Taiwan citizens,

amounting to 12.6 percent of the 133,305 Chinese spouses who

had entered Taiwan from September 2003 to October 2006.



NGOs assert that the government does too little to educate

migrants, including foreign spouses, about rights and

protections available to them under Taiwan law. This leaves

them distrustful of authority, and vulnerable to

misinformation and abuse from spouses, employers, and

traffickers. Traffickers are able to operate with relative



TAIPEI 00000740 006 OF 035





impunity, NGOs say, because law enforcement resources

dedicated to combat trafficking are still inadequate.



In August 2005, 1,700 Thai laborers working on the Kaohsiung

area rapid transit system rioted over management conditions,

withholding of pay, and poor living conditions. The riot

revealed the existence of a significant labor trafficking

problem in Taiwan, and highlighted the need for changes to

Taiwan's foreign labor importation system.



According to MOI, there are approximately 340,000 foreign

workers in Taiwan, primarily from the Philippines, Thailand,

Vietnam, and Indonesia. Fifty percent of these workers are

employed in the manufacturing industry, and 45 percent are

employed as nursing caregivers.



Foreign workers in the industrial and manufacturing sectors,

including construction workers, fishermen, and caregivers

employed by hospitals or other commercial institutions are

covered by the Taiwan Labor Standards Law (LSL). The LSL

prohibits forced labor, establishes limits on premature

contract termination, ensures basic minimum wage and overtime

rates, sets limits on the work-day and work-week, and

guarantees breaks and minimum time off.



The protections offered by the LSL do not extend to the

150,000 foreign workers employed as private nursing

caregivers and domestic helpers. They are covered instead by

the Employment Services Act (ESA),which does not guarantee

the minimum wage or overtime pay, does not set limits on the

work-day or work-week, and does not provide for minimum

breaks or vacation time. NGOs report many cases of foreign

domestic helpers and nursing caregivers working 16-18 hours

per day, and being given only one day per month or less of

free time. Some employers forbid their employees from

leaving the employer's residence, except on days off. In

this forced isolation, foreign domestic helpers and nursing

caregivers are extremely vulnerable to abuse, including

physical or mental abuse, and sexual assault. The ESA does

not afford foreign workers any protection against the

employer's arbitrary termination of their contract.



In November 2006, the CLA considered extending LSL coverage

to foreign workers employed as private nursing caregivers and

domestic helpers. The proposal encountered stiff opposition

from the League of Welfare Organizations for the Disabled,

who argued that extending LSL coverage to these categories of

workers would make care services for disabled family members

unaffordable for about one-third of those families who

currently employ such workers. The CLA withdrew the

proposal, but did not rule out its future reconsideration.



To reduce the likelihood of labor trafficking and the

incidence of employer abuse, on October 24, 2006, the CLA

promulgated the "Living Conditions and Management Standards

for Employment of Class B Foreign Workers," which establishes

mandatory living conditions, including meals, free time, and

a right to privacy, for all foreign workers. Starting

November 1, 2006, all employers must submit to local labor

authorities a "Foreign Worker's Life Management Plan" for

each foreign worker, within three days of the worker's

arrival in Taiwan. Local labor inspectors are required to

conduct an inspection of the worker's living environment and

working conditions within two months of receiving the

employer's "Life Management Plan." By the end of December

2006, employers had submitted 6,287 plans for newly arrived

foreign workers.



Taiwan has no law to protect foreign workers from being

forcibly repatriated. Under current laws, an employer can

repatriate foreign workers at any time. NGOs report that

foreign workers who raise concerns or seek legal help are

regularly deported without due process. CLA changed its

regulations to address this problem. Beginning November 1,



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2006, employers who wish to terminate a foreign worker's

contract before its expiration date must request and obtain

approval from an appropriate local government labor official.

If the labor official discovers a labor-management dispute,

or that the worker is being forcibly repatriated, the

employer will not be able to recruit a new worker to fill the

vacancy until the dispute is resolved.



The Taiwan government grants commercial and private employers

the right to employ a certain number of foreign workers per

year. Employers sell these "quotas" to the highest-bidding

brokerage firm, which then recruits foreign workers to fill

the quota, charging each worker exorbitant job placement and

brokerage fees. In order to preserve lucrative relationships

with employers, brokers often help to control troublesome

employees through threats, physical abuse, and other forms of

punishment. Brokers also often help employers to forcibly

deport foreign workers -- the employer gets rid of a

problematic employee, and the broker can fill the empty quota

with a new foreign worker. The higher the turnover rate for

foreign workers, the more money brokerage firms can make,

since each new crop of workers can be charged new placement

and brokerage fees.



High brokerage fees and other charges frequently turn foreign

workers into virtual indentured servants. According to a

2006 NGO report, foreign workers must pay combined placement,

service fees, and food and boarding charges of between NT

$254,000-$433,000 (US $8,200-$14,000) for a three-year

factory or construction job contract. Factory and

construction workers are covered by the LSL and are

guaranteed a minimum monthly salary of NT $15,840 (US $511),

plus overtime. Regular overtime must be paid at 1.33 times

the regular hourly rate for the first two hours of overtime

per day, and for every hour thereafter, special overtime must

be paid at 1.66 times the hourly rate. The average factory

worker earning the minimum monthly salary plus 10 hours of

regular overtime and 10 hours of special overtime per month

would need 12.5 months to pay off average fixed debts of NT

$343,500, leaving no money for himself.



Domestic helpers and nursing caregivers are entitled to NT

$15,840 monthly minimum salary, but typically are not paid

overtime wages, since they are not covered by the LSL. The

same 2006 NGO report indicated that foreign workers must pay

combined placement, service fees, and food and boarding

charges of between NT $104,000-$293,000 (US $3,400-$9,500) to

secure a three-year domestic helper or nursing caregiver job.

With no prospect of overtime wages, the average domestic

helper or nursing caregiver would need 12.5 months to pay off

average fixed debts of NT $198,500, leaving no money left

over for other expenses.



Taiwan regulations allow an employer, with the foreign

worker's consent, to deduct up to 30 percent of the foreign

worker's monthly salary to be placed in a bank account in the

worker's name. The employer holds the bank book and the

worker has no access to this account. The money, which

typically amounts to around NT $3,000 per month, is only

returned to the worker at the completion of his or her

contract. If the company goes bankrupt, the worker loses the

money. This practice is called "forced savings" because if

the worker does not consent to the arrangement, the worker is

sent home.



Because the debts owed to brokers and employers are so great,

most workers expect to save little or nothing during the

first two years of their contracts. In many cases, the

financial pressure prompts workers to run away from their

broker and employer in order to seek more profitable

employment elsewhere. Workers also flee to escape difficult

or dangerous work, or to escape abuse by the broker or

employer. According to a 2005 NGO survey of 118 migrant

workers who had quit their legal employment to begin working



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illegally, 36 percent had quit because their take-home salary

was too low after deductions for brokerage fees, food, board,

tax, health and labor insurance, and forced savings.

Eighteen percent had quit because the work was too difficult

or dangerous.



Foreign workers in Taiwan do not have the right to transfer

to a new employer at will. The ESA authorizes foreign

workers to transfer to a new employer only under certain

conditions: (1) the employer or person to be cared for dies

or departs Taiwan; (2) the vessel on which the worker is

employed sinks, is under repair, or has been seized; (3) the

factory or other work location is shut down, has suspended

business, or is unable to pay the worker's salary; (4) the

worker can prove he has suffered physical, sexual, or severe

verbal abuse from the employer; (5) the worker reports that

he has been forced by his legal employer to work for an

illegal employer; and (6) after a previous warning from the

government, the employer has forced the worker to again

perform work outside the scope of his work permit or

employment contract, or to work in an unauthorized workplace

("illegal work").



Before January 2002, an employee was entitled to an immediate

transfer upon proving that his employer had forced him to do

illegal work. In 2002, Article 72 of the ESA was revised to

give an employer a chance to correct the illegal work

situation within a specified period. Now, a worker is only

entitled to a transfer (and his employer will only be

punished) after the employer's second illegal work violation.

This puts the foreign worker in a catch-22: a worker

reporting a first violation risks destroying his relationship

with the employer, who can retaliate by canceling the

worker's contract and deporting him. If the worker chooses

not to report the illegal work, he risks being caught by the

police and deported for working illegally (see further

discussion at para. 29 (C),below).



Assuming a foreign worker is entitled to transfer to a new

employer for one of the enumerated reasons, domestic helpers

and nursing caregivers must typically wait 6-8 weeks before

the transfer is approved. Factory and construction workers

usually wait 3-4 weeks. While waiting to transfer to a new

employer, foreign workers are not allowed to work. If they

cannot find a new employer, they must depart Taiwan.



If a foreign worker leaves his or her legal employer for any

reason not authorized by the ESA, the worker automatically

enters "illegal status" and can be subject to immediate

deportation. According to Taiwan officials, foreign workers

in illegal status can earn higher wages from illegal

employers willing to hire them (US $800 per month versus US

$511). By hiring foreign workers in illegal status, illegal

employers can circumvent the foreign worker quota system,

taxes, and other financial burdens the government imposes on

legal employers of foreign workers. Although they may be

able to earn more money, foreign workers in illegal status do

not have a contract, are not protected by the LSL or ESA, and

are not covered by health or labor insurance. Because they

fear deportation, foreign workers in illegal status rarely

report employer misconduct to law enforcement or other

government officials. This makes them extremely vulnerable

to employer abuse, including but not limited to physical or

mental abuse and sexual assault. Some illegal status foreign

workers, desperate for any type of gainful employment, end up

trafficked into forced labor or Taiwan's sex industry.



NGOs reported that foreign workers often fell victim to labor

trafficking -- having contracted to perform one type of work

but forced to perform another type of work upon arrival in

Taiwan. Employers use this tactic to circumvent hiring

limits on certain classes of workers, or workers from certain

countries. Employers and brokers both profit from it:

brokers charge workers more to secure high-wage-plus-overtime



TAIPEI 00000740 009 OF 035





factory jobs than they do for low-wage domestic caretaker

jobs. Employers can pay foreign workers bound by domestic

helper contracts less than those who signed factory worker

contracts. Since they are performing work outside the scope

of their work permits and original contracts, foreign workers

often believe they are in illegal status. Many of these

workers do not report labor trafficking violations to

authorities because they do not know their rights and are

fearful of deportation. Other workers, in debt to brokers

and possibly the employer, do not wish to lose what gainful

employment they have. In any event, the ESA grants employers

one chance to "cure" certain violations, including forcing an

employee to perform unauthorized work or to work at an

unauthorized location, without penalty (see above). If the

foreign worker reports the violation, he risks retaliation

from the employer, who will likely not be punished.



According to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA),from

December 2005 to December 2006, the number of foreign workers

in illegal status decreased by 2.6 percent, to 21,051. The

number of Filipino workers in illegal status dropped by 6

percent (2,982),and the number of illegal workers from

Thailand and Vietnam also dropped, by 30 percent (1,839) and

11 percent (10,711),respectively. The number of Indonesian

workers in illegal status rose by 39 percent, to 5,512. Due

to high "runaway" rates among Vietnamese workers, a ban on

Vietnamese fishermen has been in effect since May 2004, and a

ban on Vietnamese domestic helpers and nursing caregivers has

been in place since January 2005. For similar reasons, a ban

on Indonesian workers had been in effect from August 2002 to

December 2004.



In April 2006, CLA announced guidelines for heavier fines for

those who employ or arrange employment for illegal foreign

workers. Administrative fines for labor violations are

imposed and collected by local city and county governments.

CLA urged local governments, which assess and collect these

fines, to follow the new guidelines to heavily punish those

who employ illegal workers. Stiffer penalties were also

announced for illegal foreign workers themselves. The CLA

emphasized that trafficking victims forced into illegal

status by mistreatment or exploitation would not be

repatriated, and their right to work in Taiwan would be

preserved. Despite the CLA's April 2006 new penalty

guidelines, most city and county governments continued to

assess minimum instead of maximum fines. CLA officials told

AIT the new penalty guidelines were non-binding

recommendations, and that local governments retained

discretion over labor violation fines. (Please see para. 29

(C) below for further discussion.)



In January 2007, CLA implemented new measures to simplify the

re-hiring of foreign nursing caregivers and domestic helpers.

Under this "direct re-hiring program," employers can now

file applications to re-hire the same foreign worker before

the expiration of the worker's current contract. The

paperwork required of the foreign worker has been simplified,

and time required out of Taiwan to renew the work permission

has been shortened to one day from three weeks. Brokers are

not involved in arranging the contract renewal, saving the

foreign worker a second brokerage fee and other charges often

demanded by brokers.



In March 2007, CLA revised the rules governing cash rewards

for those who report violations of the Employment Standards

Law (ESL). Informants can receive NT $50,000 for reporting

illegal employment or brokerage of foreign workers, up from

NT $5,000. The reward for information leading to the arrest

of a "runaway" worker has been increased from NT $2,000 to NT

$5,000. The reward for reporting an illegal foreign worker

remains unchanged at NT $2,000. NGOs strongly condemn

rewards for the capture of "runaway" workers. Workers who

flee their employers because of exploitation or abuse are not

criminals, NGOs argue, and should not have bounties placed on



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their heads.



CLA also announced a new reward structure to encourage the

public to report cases of mistreatment of foreign workers.

Under the new rules, depending upon the size of the company,

informants can receive up to NT $100,000 for reporting poor

management of foreign workers by local companies. In

addition, NT $50,000 will be paid to anyone reporting sexual

harassment of foreign workers by their employers.



Government leaders have demonstrated strong political will to

combat trafficking in persons. This commitment is best

demonstrated by the "Executive Yuan Action Plan for

Suppressing Trafficking in Persons" (the "Action Plan"),

published by the EY on November 8, 2006. Thirteen government

ministries and agencies and NGOs cooperated in drafting the

Plan, which directs: (1) strengthening Taiwan's existing net

of anti-trafficking laws; (2) implementing an island-wide

standard procedure to identify trafficking victims; (3)

exempting trafficking victims from punishment for non-violent

crimes occasioned by their victimization; (4) allowing

trafficking victims to switch jobs or employers; (5)

assigning special task forces and special prosecutors to

increase the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of

traffickers; and (6) enhancing penalties for convicted

traffickers. By May 2007, each relevant government agency

must submit its detailed proposal to meet Plan goals. A

Cabinet-level Minister without Portfolio, appointed by and

responsible to the Executive Yuan, oversees and coordinates

the multi-agency task force, which met for the first time in

March 2007. The Plan requires a comprehensive

anti-trafficking strategy to be fully implemented by December

2008.



In an effort to streamline immigration policies and to

improve immigration enforcement, the Taiwan government on

January 2, 2007 launched the National Immigration Agency

(NIA). The NIA replaces the National Police Agency's (NPA)

Immigration Bureau and Foreign Affairs Department, and the

Aviation and Harbor Police Bureaus. The NIA has also absorbed

immigration-related duties from MOI, the Council for Labor

Affairs (CLA),and several other government agencies. The

NIA is now responsible for formulating and implementing all

policies and procedures relating to foreign workers, foreign

spouses, and legal and illegal immigrants. To improve

accessibility to immigration services, in January 2007 the

NIA opened 25 new immigration service offices in cities and

counties across the island. NIA also hired an additional 160

immigration officers to speed handling of immigration

matters.



On December 11, 2006, the Legislative Yuan Home and Nations

Sub-Committee approved the revised draft of the Immigration

Act, which includes a new chapter on "Cross-Border Human

Trafficking Prevention and Victim Protection." The

Immigration Act bill is currently under consideration by the

Legislative Yuan, and is expected to be passed before the end

of this legislative session in June 2007 (see 29.A below).



27 C. Limitations on Taiwan's Ability to Address TIP



Until last year, Taiwan's difficult relationship with PRC had

been its greatest handicap in fighting trafficking from the

Mainland. China and Taiwan signed the Kinmen Accord in

September 1990, under which the PRC agreed to accept

returning illegal immigrants from Taiwan within 20 days.

According to Taiwan authorities, the complicated cross-Strait

relationship, the lack of normal communication channels and

the PRC's refusal to cooperate contributed to increasingly

longer periods of detention for growing numbers of illegal

PRC immigrants. In 2004, nearly 5,000 PRC citizens were

awaiting repatriation in Taiwan's four detention facilities.

By February 2006, that number had been reduced to

approximately 1,200 people detained in four separate



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facilities. As of February 2007, only 128 PRC citizens are

being held in detention, in the one remaining facility in

Ilan.



According to NIA and Taiwan academics, the drastic decrease

in the number of PRC detainees awaiting repatriation is the

result of enhanced communication with Chinese authorities and

improved cross-Strait relations. During several large

repatriation operations from November 2006 to February 2007,

Taiwan returned an additional 370 illegal immigrants to the

PRC, bringing the total number of detainees in Taiwan to its

lowest level in 15 years. Taiwan has closed three of its

four detention facilities, leaving open only the Lotung

facility in Ilan, which can accommodate 2,000 people.



Taiwan faces few budget or personnel shortages that would

hinder its ability to combat labor and sex trafficking from

Southeast Asian source countries. Taiwan also has sufficient

resources to provide adequate protections and services for

trafficking victims. A central NGO complaint is that

although the central government has mandated that certain

protections and services for trafficking victims be available

island-wide, the treatment afforded to trafficking victims

varies considerably from place to place. NGOs told AIT that

central government police and labor authorities often

establish beneficial new policies or procedures that are only

partially implemented or simply ignored by local labor and

law enforcement officials. This problem is especially marked

in the more rural areas of southern Taiwan. Central and

local government officials acknowledge this situation, and

emphasize government plans to counteract it through increased

training and education on TIP-related issues.



Foreign labor brokerage companies operate across national

borders, and Taiwan's ability to restrain abusive practices

in source countries is limited. Brokers in Taiwan are in

direct communication with their counterparts in Vietnam,

Thailand, the Philippines, and other source countries.

Source country governments often do not closely monitor the

fees and other conditions imposed on workers by labor brokers

in their territory. This gives foreign labor brokers in

Taiwan and in the various source countries ample opportunity

to exploit the workers through inflated fees, and to coerce

them by threatening family or property left behind in the

worker's home country. The Taiwan government is working to

improve cross-border cooperation with source country

governments, but progress has been slow.



Corruption may be impeding reform of the exploitative labor

brokerage system. Following the 2005 Kaohsiung labor riots,

Taiwan politicians and media outlets investigated whether

legislators and high-level government officials had received

kickbacks from the brokerage companies involved in the

scandal. According to press reports from November 2005,

elected officials at the central and local government levels

had lobbied on behalf of 70 different foreign labor brokerage

companies to obtain a portion of the foreign labor "quotas"

needed by the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit project. There was

speculation that legislators, especially members of the

legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare

Committee, were personally involved in and profiting from the

importation of foreign labor to Taiwan. Sources have told

AIT that, even though in their view it would be desirable to

eliminate the foreign labor brokerage system, they believed

this could not be done because several legislators would

oppose it for personal financial reasons.



Taiwan's existing incentive system for police may need to be

changed. Officers receive large incentive payments for

arrests involving drugs or firearms, and these kinds of cases

weigh heavily in deciding promotions. Trafficking cases take

more time to investigate than drug or gun crimes, but

trafficking arrests garner less incentive money and do little

to boost an officer's chances for promotion. A Foreign



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Affairs Police bureau chief suggested trafficking

investigations and arrests would increase if the incentive

system were recalibrated.



27 D. Taiwan Monitoring of Anti-Trafficking Efforts



Taiwan now systematically monitors its anti-trafficking

efforts on all three fronts -- prevention, protection, and

prosecution. The Action Plan requires the multi-agency task

force to convene every two months to report to the presiding

Minister without Portfolio, who is required to monitor and

evaluate progress toward anti-TIP goals. The multi-agency

task force convened for the first time on March 7, 2007.

Following the meeting, the Executive Yuan delivered to AIT

the "Executive Yuan Report on Prevention of Trafficking in

Persons." The Report detailed government plans to prevent

trafficking through education and early detection, to improve

protections and services for trafficking victims, and to

intensify prosecution and punishment of traffickers. The

Report also established anti-TIP benchmarks and reported

progress made toward reaching those goals since the Action

Plan was approved on November 8, 2006.



The MOJ issued its own internal "Human Trafficking Prevention

Concrete Implementation Plan" on December 27, 2006. Pursuant

to this plan, in January 2007 the Taiwan High Court

Prosecutor's Office established a unit of six senior-level

prosecutors to supervise lower District Court handling of

trafficking cases. Each of Taiwan's 21 District Court

prosecutor's offices was required to designate a senior-level

prosecutor to manage trafficking cases at the local level.



Before 2007, the Ministry of Justice tracked investigations,

prosecutions and convictions via the principal Criminal Code

section or other law used to charge or convict the defendant.

Taiwan does not have a comprehensive anti-trafficking law,

so prosecutors use existing sections of Taiwan's Criminal

Code, labor and immigration laws, the Taiwan-PRC Relations

Act, and the CYSTPA to punish labor- and sex-trafficking

offenses. MOJ statistics did not distinguish between actual

trafficking cases and "trafficking-related" offenses like

smuggling and prostitution. In January 2007, in cooperation

with District Court prosecutors and local law enforcement,

the Taiwan High Court began tracking trafficking cases based

on the facts of the cases themselves; specifically, whether a

given case involves the control, coercion, and exploitation

typical of trafficking cases. These new statistics have been

provided to AIT.



The Council for Labor Affairs (CLA) maintains and reports

statistics on the number of requests for assistance received

by the 24 Foreign Worker Service Stations located around

Taiwan, and those received by the Foreign Worker Assistance

Center located at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. CLA

tracks and reports the number of calls received by the

various foreign worker telephone hotlines. CLA and the MOI

also track the number of foreign workers assisted by

government-subsidized NGO shelters. CLA tracks and reports

the number of employers and brokers fined for violating

foreign worker labor regulations. CLA also tracks and

reports the number of foreign workers in "illegal status,"

according to their country of origin.



The National Immigration Agency (NIA),the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs (MOFA),the National Police Administration

(NPA),and the Coast Guard monitor and report statistics on

the number of illegal foreign immigrants to Taiwan, including

those from the PRC, Vietnam, Thailand, and other Southeast

Asian countries. MOFA and NIA also maintain and report

statistics on foreign spouse visa interviews, refusal and

issuance rates, and the number of spouses found to be in

fraudulent marriages.



In 2006, the MOI authorized the Central Police University to



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study international human trafficking patterns, and to

investigate and analyze statistics on human trafficking in

Taiwan. According to the EY, the results of this project

will be available to government authorities to guide further

efforts to combat trafficking.



The government began monitoring trafficking of children and

minors in 1995. The 1995 Child and Youth Sexual Transaction

Prevention Act (CYSTPA) created an interagency taskforce

composed of the ministries of Interior, Justice, Defense,

Economic Affairs, Transportation, Education, the Department

of Health, the Mainland Affairs Council, and the Council of

Labor Affairs. Together with key NGOs, this task force

continues to monitor implementation of the CYSTPA and

provides guidance to member agencies through semi-annual

written reports.



Section 2 - PREVENTION



28 A. Taiwan Acknowledgment of the Problem



The government recognizes that PRC and Southeast Asian men

and women, and sometimes minors, are trafficked to Taiwan for

forced labor and sexual exploitation. The government

acknowledges that Taiwan is also a transit point for the

smuggling of PRC nationals to other countries. Taiwan

authorities acknowledge that Taiwan is a source country for a

small number of women trafficked to other countries,

particularly Japan. The central and local governments are

actively working to prevent trafficking, to assist

trafficking victims, and to punish traffickers.



The Executive Yuan has acknowledged that, before the

promulgation of the Action Plan, the Taiwan government "did

not go far enough in identifying and protecting human

trafficking victims." The EY has admitted that, in the past,

traffickers had too often received only minor punishments.

The stated objective of the Action Plan is to rationalize and

integrate the government response to the trafficking problem,

coordinating efforts between different agencies at both the

national and local level.



28 B. Taiwan Agency Structure for Anti-Trafficking



The following government agencies are involved in the fight

against trafficking: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA),

Ministry of Justice (MOJ),Ministry of Education (MOE),

Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC),

Department of Health, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC),the

Council for Labor Affairs (CLA),the Government Information

Office (GIO),the Council of Cultural Affairs, the Council of

Indigenous Peoples, the Council of Agriculture, the Financial

Supervisory Commission, the Coast Guard Administration, and

the Ministry of Interior (MOI),which includes the National

Immigration Agency (NIA) and the National Police

Administration (NPA). A Cabinet-level Minister without

Portfolio, appointed by and responsible to the Executive

Yuan, is charged with supervising the interagency

implementation of an island-wide Action Plan to combat

trafficking.



28 C. Information, Education and Communication



The Taiwan government conducts anti-trafficking information

and education campaigns that target potential and actual

victims of trafficking, both domestically and abroad.



In January 2006 the government opened a special service

counter at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to

disseminate labor rights information to arriving workers and

to hear grievances and to provide emergency assistance to

laborers about to depart Taiwan. NGOs argue that the

location of the service counters in the non-secure,

pre-immigration area of the airport enables brokers to



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physically prevent workers from reporting problems. CLA

officials respond that workers can also use emergency phones

located in the airport's secure post-immigration area to

report complaints. NGOs counter that the emergency phones

are not marked for that purpose, rendering them useless to

uninformed workers. NGOs also charge that the airport

service counter staff are poorly trained, and that the

counters often run out of informational pamphlets. CLA

contends the service counter's usefulness to foreign workers

is demonstrated by the 270 emergency petitions and 94,000

service requests processed during the 2006 calendar year.

The 2006 CLA budget for the Taoyuan Service Center was US

$645,000. There are plans in place to open a second worker

service counter at the international airport in Kaohsiung.



CLA supports 24 Foreign Labor Consultant Service Centers

located around Taiwan. The Centers, operated by local

governments with CLA funding, provide counseling, legal aid,

and labor dispute resolution services. The Centers also

publish and disseminate worker rights handbooks, conduct

legal seminars and language training courses, host social and

cultural events, and sponsor radio and television programs

and advertisements to inform foreign workers of their rights

and remedies under Taiwan law. In 2006, CLA budgeted US $1.3

million to subsidize the centers. In 2007, CLA increased its

annual budget for the service centers to US $2.1 million, to

ensure that city and county governments had sufficient

resources to defray attorney fees, court costs, and other

fees associated with litigating foreign workers' legal

claims.



In 2006, CLA gave US $923 thousand to city and county

governments and private organizations to host 128 social

events for foreign workers. The events were designed to

bring foreign workers together, where government and NGO

representatives could inform them of their rights and

obligations under Taiwan law. According to CLA, more than

62,000 foreign workers attended these events.



To increase foreign workers' awareness of their rights under

Taiwan law, the CLA published a booklet entitled "Legal

Workers are Good Workers," which used pictures to depict

legal and illegal conduct by workers and employers. CLA also

disseminated 90,000 employer handbooks and 255,000 foreign

worker handbooks, translated into English, Vietnamese,

Indonesian, and Thai. CLA also helped city and county

governments defray expenses associated with foreign labor

affairs reporting, reform of foreign labor regulations, and

training conferences for local law enforcement and social

services personnel. CLA's 2006 budget for publications and

foreign labor-related assistance to local governments was US

$1 million. The 2007 budget was increased by 75 percent, to

US $1.76 million.



The Action Plan requires MAC to continue and expand its

"Mainland Spousal Guidance Program," which uses town

hall-style meetings, social events, information hotlines,

websites and printed handbooks to inform Mainland-born

spouses of their rights under Taiwan law. MAC is also

required to continue and expand its subsidies to NGOs to

continue dialogue with the PRC on anti-trafficking efforts

and other related cross-Strait exchanges.



The Taiwan government subsidizes NGO-run domestic trafficking

prevention outreach programs targeting minors and Southeast

Asian women married to Taiwanese men. The Action Plan

obligates MOI to establish by October 2007 a formal mechanism

to accept and evaluate NGO requests for government subsidies

for programs to combat trafficking.



Taiwan government representative Overseas Offices in

Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam conduct

pre-entry counseling seminars for foreign spouses of Taiwan

citizens. The seminars are conducted by experienced local



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counselors, and contain information on the rights and

obligations of foreign spouses living in Taiwan. In 2006,

6,200 Southeast Asian foreign spouses had participated in

these seminars. After the PRC, Vietnamese citizens constitute

the majority of foreign spouses married to Taiwan citizens.

For this reason, the Overseas Office in Ho Chi Minh city has

created a website to help Vietnamese spouses obtain necessary

information. By January 2007, the site had received 30,000

hits.



The Action Plan obligates MOI by June 2007 to develop and

implement programs and publish materials to increase the

general public's awareness of human trafficking, and to

increase foreign laborers' understanding of their rights and

remedies under Taiwan law.



28 D. Other Programs to Prevent Trafficking



Taiwan authorities at the central and local government level

are active in combating many of the social ills which

predispose individuals to becoming victims of trafficking.



All city and county governments maintain violence prevention

and control centers to address domestic and sexual violence

and child abuse, environmental factors which can contribute

to homelessness, thereby increasing an individual's

vulnerability to sex or labor exploitation. Victims of

abuse, including foreign born-spouses and foreign workers,

can receive medical treatment, emergency assistance, shelter,

legal and family counseling, language education and other

forms of training.



CLA regularly conducts publicity campaigns to inform young

people, first-time job seekers, and other workers of their

labor rights and remedies, and to increase awareness of the

labor- and sex-trafficking risks associated with deceptive

job offers.



In 2006, the Taiwan central and local governments began a US

$100 per month per child subsidy program to reduce financial

stress on lower-income families deemed to be at higher risk

for child abuse. The central government paid 70 percent of

the US $6.4 million program and local governments paid the

rest. The program was expected to help as many as 15,000

underprivileged children. The central government allocated

an additional US $1 million to hire an additional 140 social

workers to manage child welfare cases. The MOI tripled

funding for social welfare NGOs to US $3 million to assist

their efforts to increase public awareness of child abuse and

domestic violence, and to identify and assist children and

families deemed at high risk. In January 2007, the government

also offered a US $100 per month rental subsidy for

low-income families unable to afford decent housing.



Adults and children are provided subsidized health care under

the national health insurance plan. In January 2007, the

Taiwan government assumed responsibility for paying the

insurance premiums for family members of jobless insured

workers.



Education for children between six and 15 years of age is

free, universal, compulsory and enforced. According to

government statistics, 99 percent of eligible children attend

primary and junior high school. The Department of Education

tracks school dropouts, provides counseling, and encourages

these students to return to school. The Action Plan requires

the Department of Education to submit a proposal to improve

the effectiveness of this program by December 2007. The

government recently decided to extend compulsory education

from nine to twelve years, starting in 2009.



The government continues to financially support a program

sponsored by End Child Prostitution, Pornography and

Trafficking (ECPAT) in which counselors visit teenage girls



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in shelters once a week to ensure they do not become

trafficking victims. In 2005, local police forces around

Taiwan joined forces with ECPAT to combat Internet child

pornography. With assistance from local Internet service

providers, over the past two years the operation shut down

2,442 websites, and 69 cases were referred to the Central

Investigative Bureau for further investigation.



28 E. Taiwan Relationship with NGOs, Civil Society, Relevant

Organizations on Trafficking



The Taiwan government has a strong working relationship with

a number of NGOs and other civic organizations involved in

anti-trafficking efforts, including the Women's Rescue

Foundation, ECPAT Taiwan, the Presbyterian Church, the

Catholic Society of Jesus, the Good Shepherd Sisters, the

Hope Workers' Center, the Stella Maris International Service

Center, the Color Page Women's Volunteer Organization, the

Chinese Muslim Association, the Chunghua Foundation for

Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, the United Way, and

the Garden of Hope Foundation.



NGOs were involved in the drafting of Taiwan's anti-TIP

Action Plan. The Action Plan requires MOI, MOJ, NIA, and

other involved government agencies to include NGO

representatives in regular policy-making discussions, and to

incorporate NGO recommendations into a "comprehensive and

integrated" anti-TIP strategy. Government agencies are also

required by the Action Plan to include NGO input in anti-TIP

informational materials, educational seminars, and other

activities.



NGOs contend that although they have been included in

anti-TIP policy discussions, too few of their suggestions

have been adopted. This has prompted some NGO leaders to

criticize the government for being more interested in

improving its image than in actually solving Taiwan's sex-

and labor-trafficking problem.



The Taiwan central government subsidizes 11 NGO-operated

shelters for trafficking victims; the Kaohsiung and Taipei

City governments subsidize two more. The NIA, CLA/BLA,

national and local police agencies, and the national and

local prosecutors' offices cooperate with NGOs and civic

organizations to identify trafficking victims and to place

them in appropriate shelter environments. NGO

representatives are permitted to accompany victims to police

interviews, labor hearings, and court appearances, and to

provide interpretation and other services. Several NGOs have

received permission from the NIA to monitor the living

conditions of PRC women and girls detained while awaiting

repatriation to China, and to conduct social and educational

programs for them.



The Taiwan government sponsors NGO participation in

international anti-trafficking meetings and exchanges.

Taiwan will host an international anti-trafficking seminar in

August 2007, and will invite NGOs and academics to

participate. Taiwan Overseas Offices cooperate with NGO

representatives overseas and provide them as much assistance

as possible. MOFA subsidizes domestic NGOs that assist the

safe return of trafficking victims to their home countries.

Domestic NGOs that conduct exchanges with the PRC to reduce

PRC-to-Taiwan trafficking are also eligible to apply for

subsidies.



28 F. Taiwan Border Control Screening and Monitoring of

Emigration/Immigration Patterns for Evidence of TIP



In an effort to streamline immigration policies and to

improve immigration enforcement, the Taiwan government on

January 2, 2007 launched the National Immigration Agency

(NIA). The NIA replaces the National Police Agency's (NPA)

Immigration Bureau and Foreign Affairs Department, and the



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Aviation and Harbor Police Bureaus. The NIA has also absorbed

immigration-related duties from MOI, the Council for Labor

Affairs (CLA),and several other government agencies. The

NIA is now the lead agency for formulating and implementing

all policies and procedures relating to foreign workers,

foreign spouses, and legal and illegal immigrants.



The NIA, NPA and other government agencies collect and

compile statistics on legal and illegal immigration to study

human trafficking trends and to formulate future policy.

NIA, MOFA, NPA, and the Coast Guard monitor and report

statistics on the number of illegal foreign immigrants

apprehended in Taiwan, including those from the PRC, Vietnam,

Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries. NIA and NPA

also record and report the number of foreign citizens

arrested for various kinds of offenses, including

prostitution, and the number and nationality of those foreign

citizens deported each year. CLA tracks and reports the

number of foreign workers in "illegal status," according to

their country of origin. MOFA maintains and reports

statistics on foreign spouse visa interviews, refusal and

issuance rates. NIA and NPA track the number of foreign

spouses found to be in fraudulent marriages. Government

officials use all of these indicators to try to gauge the

scope and nature of human trafficking in Taiwan, but do not

have reliable estimates.



In order to discourage the fraudulent use of marriage visas

to traffick women into Taiwan, spouse visa applicants from

the PRC, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, the

Philippines, and Vietnam must undergo interviews in their

home countries before departing for Taiwan. All foreign

spouses and their prospective mates must undergo a second

interview process upon their arrival in Taiwan. Those who

fail the interview process are barred from entering Taiwan

and are immediately returned to their countries of origin.



28 G. Existence of Trafficking and Corruption Task Forces



Taiwan has established an official mechanism to exchange

information at the national level regarding trafficking in

persons. The Action Plan requires MOI, MOJ, MOFA, NIA, NPA,

CLA, and other government agencies to convene every two

months to coordinate and evaluate ongoing anti-trafficking

efforts. A Cabinet-level Minister without Portfolio has been

appointed to oversee the task force. The MOI has also

appointed a vice-minister to serve as the single point of

contact for TIP-related inquiries.



Taiwan also has a multi-agency task-force aimed at preventing

the trafficking of under-age girls. The 1995 Child and Youth

Sexual Transaction Prevention Act (CYSTPA) created an

interagency taskforce composed of the ministries of Interior,

Justice, Defense, Economic Affairs, Transportation,

Education, the Department of Health, the Mainland Affairs

Council, and the Council of Labor Affairs. Together with key

NGOs, this task force monitors implementation of the 1995

statute and provides guidance to member agencies through

semi-annual written reports.



In addition to the inter-agency taskforce stipulated by the

CYSTPA, the Foundation of Women's Rights Promotion and

Development (WRP) also serves as a platform to discuss all

women-related issues. The WRP is an NGO funded by the

Executive Yuan (EY). It is chaired by the Premier and

includes the ministers of Interior, Education, Justice,

Personnel Administration, Government Information Office,

Health, and Labor as well as academics and representatives of

NGOs.



The Taiwan High Prosecutor's Office maintains an

Anti-Corruption Center dedicated to investigating and

prosecuting corruption cases involving legislators,

government ministers and other senior government officials,



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and high-ranking military officials.



28 H. National Plan of Action



Taiwan has a national plan of action to combat trafficking in

persons. The Action Plan tasks government agencies to meet

various goals by specific deadlines. Goals not specifically

mentioned elsewhere in this report include:



Protection



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) must (1) enhance

efforts to detect and deter fraudulent visa applicants,

especially spouse visa applicants, at its Overseas offices;

(2) improve efforts to crack down on cross-border marriage

brokerage companies suspected of trafficking, and (3) improve

cooperation and communication between Taiwan's Overseas

Offices, the National Immigration Agency, local law

enforcement, and NGOs to combat trafficking rings. These are

ongoing projects.



The Education Department must enhance current efforts to

provide guidance counseling and social services for young

people no longer attending school to help them find lawful

employment and to avoid becoming victims of trafficking.

The targeted implementation date for these new programs is

December 2007.



MOI was tasked to supervise the revised draft of the

Immigration Act, which includes a new chapter on

"Cross-Border Human Trafficking Prevention and Victim

Protection." The Immigration Act bill is currently under

consideration by the Legislative Yuan, and is expected to be

passed before the end of this legislative session in June

2007.



MOI has also been tasked to: (1) develop a formal policy for

granting government subsidies to NGOs involved in assisting

victims of human trafficking; (2) establish a mechanism to

evaluate trafficking victims' requests to be returned to

their home countries; (3) formulate a policy to postpone the

repatriation of trafficking victims who may face bodily harm

in their home countries; and (4) submit proposed revisions to

existing immigration laws to allow foreign national

trafficking victims legal residence in Taiwan if they agree

to assist in the investigation, prosecution, and conviction

of alleged traffickers. These tasks must be completed by

October 2007.



On an ongoing basis, MOI must supervise and assist local

government efforts to increase the number of short-term and

emergency shelters for trafficking victims, and to provide

medical care, counseling, legal aid, and other necessary

assistance.



The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and MOI must review and

revise the laws governing relations with the PRC, Hong Kong,

and Macau, and submit proposed revisions to allow victims of

trafficking from those regions to extend their stay in Taiwan

or to obtain legal residence in exchange for assisting in the

investigation, prosecution, and conviction of alleged

traffickers. These proposals must be submitted by October

2007.



The Action Plan tasks the Council for Labor Affairs (CLA) to

review existing foreign labor shelter facilities and to

submit a proposal to increase the number of available

shelters. CLA has also been instructed to work with local

governments to update databases of multilingual employees, to

create an island-wide network of interpreters to assist

foreign workers. These tasks must be completed no later than

March 2007.



In order to improve protections for foreign workers against



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excessive service fees and other side agreements, CLA has

proposed to commission NGOs and other non-profit

organizations to evaluate rules used by other countries to

regulate cross-border employment agencies and to control

contract fees, and to recommend changes to CLA's existing

rules. To protect the rights of foreign workers during

investigation and trial, CLA and MOI have proposed

establishing "victim advocacy units" to provide legal counsel

to workers during the investigative process, starting with

initial questioning. CLA must submit plans to accomplish

these goals no later than December 2007.



MOFA is working to sign bilateral agreements with labor

source country governments to establish mechanisms for the

safe return of trafficking victims to their home countries,

and to increase cross-border cooperation to combat

trafficking. MOJ has sent a draft "Taiwan and Vietnam

Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement" to Vietnam for review.

MOJ plans to send officials to Vietnam to complete

negotiations and sign the agreement.



Prevention



CLA must enhance training for local government labor

inspectors and counseling personnel to improve their ability

to identify and protect trafficking victims. This includes

requiring all inspectors and counselors to attend special

training sessions to identify and assist victims of

trafficking, and equipping each inspector and counselor with

a handbook and standard operating procedure for identifying

trafficking victims. These goals must be achieved by June

2007.



To enhance the quality of medical services available to

foreign workers, including those who are victims of

trafficking, the Health Ministry must draft a multilingual

handbook of common medical issues. The handbook must be

posted on the Health Ministry website, so health

professionals island-wide can use it to inform foreign worker

patients. This must be completed by April 2007.



Prosecution



MOJ has been tasked to train police, immigration officials,

and other law enforcement personnel how to protect a

trafficking victim during an investigation, and how to

conduct trafficking investigations to increase the

probability of conviction at trial. MOJ must submit its

proposed training plan by April 2007.



Section 3 - INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS



29 A. Laws Specifically Prohibiting Trafficking in Persons



Taiwan does not have a comprehensive TIP law, but trafficking

in persons is specifically prohibited by the 1995 Child and

Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act (CYSTPA) and Articles

296 and 296-1 of the Criminal Code. According to MOJ, in

2006 three people were indicted for violating Article 23,

paragraph 2 of the CYSTPA and 74 people were indicted for

violating Criminal Code Article 296.



On December 11, 2006, the Legislative Yuan Home and Nations

Sub-Committee approved the revised draft of the Immigration

Act, which includes a new chapter on "Cross-Border Human

Trafficking Prevention and Victim Protection." The

Immigration Act bill is currently under consideration by the

Legislative Yuan, and is expected to be passed before the end

of the legislative session in June 2007.



The "Cross-Border Human Trafficking Prevention and Victim

Protection" chapter requires prosecutors, law enforcement,

and other government officials involved in the investigation

and prosecution of trafficking offenses to protect



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trafficking victims' privacy and personal security. The

government is required to provide medical assistance,

psychological counseling, shelter, translation, and legal

services to victims of trafficking, and to secure their

personal belongings. If the victims are children or minors,

a social worker must be appointed to accompany the child or

minor through all stages of police questioning, and if

necessary, investigation and trial of the alleged

traffickers.



The chapter further provides that if trafficking victims

agree to cooperate with prosecutors, who deem their

cooperation necessary and useful to the prosecution, victims

will be afforded all protections available under Taiwan's

"Witness Protection Act." Prosecutors are instructed to

waive prosecution for any crimes occasioned by the

trafficking, and to punish leniently other misconduct by the

trafficking victim. If a victim's testimony is required by

prosecutors, the victim should be issued a temporary

residence permit of six months or less, which should be

extended if necessary. The victim is to be returned to his

or her home country safely upon conclusion of the trial. The

chapter encourages agencies involved in anti-trafficking

efforts to cooperate with NGOs and source country governments

to promote anti-trafficking efforts.



The Home and Nations Sub-Committee also approved a proposed

revision to Article 31 of the Immigration Act, to allow

foreign workers to legally remain in Taiwan until pending

claims against their employer are fully resolved. This

amendment is also being considered by the current legislative

session, which ends on June 2007.



In 2004, Taiwan amended the Act Governing Relations Between

Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (the "Act")

to increase punishments for cross-Strait smugglers. Article

79 of the Act stipulates that any person convicted of

smuggling Mainland Chinese into Taiwan for profit in

violation of Article 15 of the Act shall be sentenced to at

least three and not more than ten years in jail, and fined up

to US $150,000. Under Articles 79 and 80, boat owners and

crewmembers involved in smuggling are subject to a prison

term of up to 3 years and/or a US $30,000-$200,000 fine and

confiscation of the boat used in the smuggling operation.



29 B. Penalties for Sexual Exploitation-Related Trafficking



Article 23 of the CYSTPA states:



-- One who seduces, permits, facilitates, helps, or by other

means causes a person under the age of eighteen to engage in

a sexual transaction shall be sentenced to more than one year

but fewer than seven years in prison, and fined not more than

NT $3,000,000.



-- One who intends to profit by committing this crime shall

be sentenced to more than three years but less than ten years

in prison, and fined not more than NT $5,000,000.



Article 24 of the CYSTPA states:

-- One who uses coercion, threats, drugs, fraud, hypnotism or

other means to make a person under the age of eighteen engage

in a sexual transaction shall be sentenced to more than seven

years in prison, and fined not more than NT $2 million (US

$57,100).



-- One who intends to profit by committing this crime shall

be punished with imprisonment of more than ten years, and

fined not more than NT $7 million (US $200,000).



-- One who habitually commits this crime shall be punished

with life imprisonment or imprisonment of not less than 10

years, and fined not more than NT $10 million (US $285,700).





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Article 25 of the CYSTPA states:



-- One who intends to make a profit by involving a person

under the age of eighteen in sexual transactions through

trafficking, pawning or other means of the same nature shall

be punished with imprisonment of more than seven years, and

fined not more than NT $7 million (US 200,000).



Chapter 26 of the Criminal Code, "Offenses Against Personal

Liberty" provides an all-encompassing statute against

trafficking. Chapter 26, Article 296, "Forcing a Person into

Slavery," states that:



-- A person who enslaves another or places another in a

position without freedom similar to slavery shall be punished

with imprisonment of not less than one and not more than

seven years.



In 1999, the Criminal Code was revised to include Article

296-1, "Trafficking in Persons," which states that:



a) A person who buys, sells, or holds another person in

custody shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than

five years, and fined not more than NT $500,000 (US $16,000).



b) A person who commits the aforementioned offense to cause a

female or male person to have sexual relations with another

person shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than

seven years, and fined not more than NT $500,000 (US $16,000).



c) A person who forces, intimidates, extorts, controls, uses

drugs or other illegal means to commit the offenses described

in (a) or (b) shall receive the punishment prescribed by (a)

or (b),with prison time and fines increased up to one half.



d) A person who introduces, accommodates, or conceals a

victim of the crimes specified in (a)-(c) shall be punished

with imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than

seven years, and fined not more than NT $300,000 (US $9,600).



e) A person who habitually commits any of the crimes

specified in (a)-(d) shall be punished with a minimum of ten

years and a maximum of life in prison and fined not more than

NT $700,000 (US $22,500).



f) A public official who conceals a person who has committed

any of the crimes specified by (a)-(e) shall receive the

punishment prescribed by (a)-(e),with prison time and fines

increased up to one half.



The 1999 revision to the Criminal Code also added Article

231-1, which stipulates:



1) A person who for profit coerces, threatens, intimidates,

controls, drugs, hypnotizes or uses other methods to overcome

the will of a female or male person in order to have that

person engage in sexual relations or obscene conduct with a

third person shall be punished with imprisonment of not less

than seven years, and fined not more than NT $300,000 (US

$9,600).



2) A person who introduces, accommodates, or conceals a

person who has committed the crime specified by (1) shall be

punished with imprisonment of not less than one year and not

more than seven years.



3) A person who habitually commits the crimes specified in

(1) or (2) shall be punished with imprisonment of not less

than ten years, coupled with a fine of not more than NT

$500,000 (US $16,000).



4) A public official who conceals a person who has committed

any of the crimes specified by (1)-(3) shall receive the

punishment prescribed by (1)-(3),with prison time and fines



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increased up to one half.



According to MOJ, 36 sex-trafficking cases were prosecuted in

2006, involving 229 defendants. Because Taiwan has no

specialized anti-trafficking law, prosecutors resorted to

various criminal statutes to prosecute alleged traffickers.



Three individuals were charged with violating Article 15 of

the Taiwan-PRC Relations Act (smuggling PRC nationals into

Taiwan, illegal or unauthorized work or conduct),and four

were accused of violating Article 79 (violating the Act for

profit).



Three individuals were prosecuted for violating Article 23 of

the CYSTPA (soliciting or facilitating child prostitution).



Under the Criminal Code, seventeen individuals were charged

with violating Article 216 (using forged government

documents),and twenty-one were charged for violating Article

214 (inducing a public official to perform a false or

dishonest act.) Twenty-eight individuals were charged with

violating Article 231 (procurement) and eighteen were charged

with violating Article 231-1 (forced prostitution).

Seventy-four were charged with violating Article 296

(slavery),one defendant was charged under Article 304 (use

of violence or coercion to compel another),one defendant was

charged under Article 221 (rape),and one defendant was

charged under Article 185-4 (vehicular homicide). Eight of

the aforementioned defendants were charged under recidivist

statutes, mandating prison time of up to five years.



According to MOJ, from the start of 2007, an additional 41

trafficking cases, involving 274 people, have been

investigated. Thirty-nine cases were filed against 253

defendants. Eighteen individuals have been convicted and

taken into custody.



Thirty-eight individuals were charged with violating Article

15 of the Act (smuggling PRC citizens into Taiwan or illegal

employment),and 131 were accused of violating Article 79

(smuggling and/or trafficking of PRC citizens). Three

individuals were also charged with violating Article 82-1 of

the Act (recruiting PRC students without government

permission).



Three individuals were prosecuted for violating Article 23 of

the CYSTPA (soliciting or facilitating child prostitution),

and 35 were charged for violating Article 24 (forcible

prostitution of a minor).



Under the Criminal Code, eleven individuals were charged with

violating Article 216 (using forged government documents),

and eight were charged for violating Article 218 (forging

official seals on public documents.) One individual was

charged with perjury under Article 168. Seventeen

individuals were charged with violating Article 231

(procurement for prostitution).



One individual was charged with violating Article 24 of the

Passport Act (counterfeiting or tampering with passport

documents causing damage to the public).



29 C. Punishment of Labor-Related Trafficking



In Taiwan, labor trafficking offenses can be punished by

administrative fines, jail time, or both. Administrative

punishments for labor trafficking are governed by Articles

44, 45, 57, 63 and 64 of the Employment Service Act, and by

Articles 5 and 75 of the Labor Standards Law.



Employment Service Act



Article 44: No one may let a foreign worker stay and work

illegally.



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Article 45: No one may refer a foreign worker to work for an

unauthorized employer.



Article 57: An employer of a foreign worker shall not:



(1) Employ a foreign worker without obtaining an Employment

Permit, or employ a foreign worker after the employer's

Employment Permit has expired, or employ a foreign worker

that has been authorized to work for another employer;



(2) Cause an authorized foreign worker to work for an

unauthorized employer;



(3) Cause a foreign worker to engage in work not within the

scope of the employer's Employment Permit;



(4) Cause a foreign worker employed as a fisherman, household

assistant to change his or her workplace without obtaining

prior government approval;



(5) Fail to arrange for the employed foreign worker to

undergo health examinations, or fail to timely submit health

examination reports to the Competent Health Authority;



(6) Dismiss or lay off a national worker as a result of

having employed a foreign worker;



(7) Coerce, threaten, or by the use of any illegal means

force a foreign worker to engage in work contrary to the

worker's free will;



(8) Illegally withhold the passport or residence certificate

of a foreign worker, or embezzle belongings of a foreign

worker.



(9) Violate any other provisions of the Employment Standards

Act or regulations promulgated pursuant to the Employment

Standards Act.



Article 63: Anyone that violates Article 44 or Subparagraph

(1) or (2) of Article 57 shall be fined at least NT $150,000

and at most NT $750,000; anyone who repeats a violation of

the same provisions within five years shall be imprisoned for

a term not to exceed three years, or be detained for hard

labor, and/or fined an amount not to exceed NT $1,200,000.



Article 64: Anyone who violates the provisions of Article 45

shall be fined an amount of at least NT $100,000 and at most

NT $500,000; anyone who repeats a violation within five years

shall be imprisoned for a term not to exceed one year, or be

detained for hard labor, and/or fined an amount not to exceed

NT $600,000.



Anyone who violates the provisions of Article 45 in order to

profit therefrom shall be imprisoned for a term not to exceed

three years, or be detained for hard labor, and/or fined an

amount not to exceed NT $1,200,000.



Anyone who violates as a usual practice the provisions of

Article 45 shall be imprisoned for a term not to exceed five

years, and in addition, may also be fined an amount not to

exceed NT $1,500,000.



Article 72, subparagraph (3) operates to give an employer a

limited time to correct illegal work situations prohibited by

Article 57, subparagraphs (3) and (4). Article 72 reads in

relevant part:



Where any of the following circumstances has arisen or

existed, the Employer's Recruitment Permit and Employment

Permit shall be annulled in whole or in part:



(1) Any of the circumstances as referred to in Article 54,



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paragraph (1) has arisen or existed;



(2) Any of the circumstances as referred to in Article 57,

subparagraphs (1),(2),(6)-(9) have arisen or existed;



(3) The employer has failed to rectify within the specified

period any of the circumstances referred to in Article 57,

subparagraphs (3) and (4).



Labor Standards Law



Article 5: No employer may, by force, coercion, detention, or

other illegal practice, compel a worker to do work.



Article 75: An employer who violates the provisions of

Article 5 shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeding five

years, detained for hard labor, and/or fined NT $50,000.



In April 2006, CLA announced guidelines for heavier fines for

those who employ or arrange employment for illegal foreign

workers. Administrative fines for labor violations are

imposed and collected by local city and county governments.

CLA urged local governments to heavily punish those who

employ illegal workers. Under the new guidelines, an

individual who knowingly hires an illegal foreign worker for

over 30 days or employs two or more illegal foreign workers

for more than 15 days should pay the maximum fine of US

$25,000 (NT $750,000). If an employer commits two offenses

within a five year period, he should face up to three years

in jail and the maximum fine of up to US $40,000 (NT $1.2

million). One who knowingly arranges work for an illegal

foreign worker, or unknowingly arranges work for two or more

illegal foreign workers, should be fined the maximum US

$16,000 (NT $500,000).



Stiffer penalties were also announced for illegal foreign

workers themselves. Any foreign worker who has stayed in

Taiwan illegally for more than six months now faces a maximum

fine of US $5,000, in addition to repatriation and permanent

exclusion from Taiwan. The CLA emphasized that trafficking

victims forced into illegal status by mistreatment or

exploitation would not be repatriated, and their right to

work in Taiwan would be preserved.



Despite the CLA's April 2006 new penalty guidelines, most

city and county governments continued to assess minimum

instead of maximum fines. According to CLA, an employers

found to have illegally changed the place or nature of a

foreign worker's employment were typically fined US $1,000,

not the $5,000 maximum. Employers found to have hired

illegal foreign workers or to have transferred a legal

foreign worker to an unauthorized employer were fined $5,000,

one-fifth of the $25,000 maximum. CLA officials told AIT the

new penalty guidelines were non-binding recommendations, and

that local governments retained discretion over assessing and

collecting labor violation fines.



According to MOJ, in 2006 law enforcement officials referred

to MOJ for possible prosecution 41 cases of labor brokers

illegally detaining workers or improperly demanding

extra-contractual payments, 308 cases of employers illegally

harboring foreign workers, 1584 cases of employers hiring

foreign workers without proper permit, 110 cases of employers

allowing their approved foreign workers to work for an

unauthorized third party, and 618 cases of employers

assigning foreign workers to perform unauthorized work or to

relocate to an unauthorized work site. The majority of these

cases were punished administratively pursuant to Articles 57

and 63 of the ESA, which specifies that illegal employment

and detention of foreign workers can be punished by fines of

NT $150,000-750,000 (US $5,000-25,000),and their licenses to

recruit and employ foreign laborers can be partially or fully

revoked.





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Of the aforementioned 2006 ESA violations, district

prosecutors from January 2006 through February 2007 filed 62

criminal cases against 122 defendants for ESA violations.

Twenty-one individuals were convicted of violating Article 63

(illegal employment of a foreign worker). Eight of those

defendants were sentenced to less than six months in prison,

eight were imprisoned for hard labor, and five were fined

between NT $150,000-750,000. Another fourteen individuals

were convicted of violating Article 64 (illegal transfer of a

foreign worker to a third party). All fourteen defendants

were sentenced to less than six months in prison, two were

assigned to hard labor, and five were fined between NT

$100,000-500,000.



29 D. Penalties for Rape or Forcible Sexual Assault



Taiwan's Criminal Code prescribes the following penalties for

those found guilty of the offenses of rape, forcible sex, and

obscene conduct:



Article 221 (normal punishment): Any person who has forced,

intimidated, or threatened any man or woman into having

carnal relations, or has done so by inducing hypnosis or

other means against his or her freewill, shall be punished

with a prison term of not less than three years and not more

than 10 years. An attempt to commit the above offense is

punishable.



Article 222 (enhanced punishment): A person who has committed

the above offense under one of the following circumstances

shall be punished with life prison or a prison term of more

than seven years:



Committing the offense together with one or more persons;

Committing the offense against anyone under the age of 14;

Committing the offense by administering drugs; Committing

the offense and torturing the victim; Committing the offense

while employed on a means of public transportation;

Committing the offense after breaking into an inhabited

building or vessel; Committing the offense with the help of

weapon(s).



Article 224 (normal punishment): A person who has forced,

intimidated, or threatened any man or woman into committing

an indecent act, or has done so by inducing hypnosis or other

means against his or her freewill, shall be punished with a

prison term of not less than six months and not more than

five years.



Article 224 (Section 1) (offenses subject to enhanced

punishment): Any person who has done so under one of the

circumstances prescribed in Article 222 shall be punished

with a prison term of not less than three years and no more

than 10 years.



Article 225 (committing the offense by taking advantage of

the victim's mental or physical disabilities or incapacity):

Any person who has committed the offense of rape against any

man or woman by taking advantage of his or her mental or

physical disabilities or incapacity shall be punished with a

prison term of more than three years and less than 10 years.

Any person who has committed an indecent act against any man

or woman by taking advantage of his or her mental

disabilities or incapacity shall be punished with a prison

term of more than six months but less than five years. Any

attempt to commit the above offense is punishable.



Article 226 (enhanced punishment): Any person who has

committed rape or has committed an indecent act, which has

resulted in the death or his or her victim, shall be punished

with life in prison or a prison term of more than 10 years.

A person who injures his or her victim while committing the

offense shall be punished with a prison term of more than 10

years. The defendant shall be sentenced to a prison term of



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more than 10 years if a victim commits suicide or injures

himself due to her sense of shame.



Article 226 (Section 1) (multiple offenses): Any person who

has committed one of the offenses specified in Article

221-225 and has intentionally killed his or her victim shall

be punished with death or life in prison. Any person who has

committed rape or has committed an indecent-act, and has

purposely injured his or her victim shall be punished with

life in prison or a prison term of more than 10 years.



Article 227: Any person who has carnal relations with any

male or female person under the age of 14 shall be punished

with a prison term of not less than three years and not more

than 10 years. Any person who commits an indecent act against

a male or female person under the age of 14 shall be punished

with a prison term of not less than six months and not more

than five years. Any person who has carnal relations with

any male or female person aged 14-16 shall be punished with a

prison term of less than seven years. Any person who commits

an indecent act against a male or female person aged 14-16

shall be punished with a prison term of not more than three

years. Any attempt to commit any of the above offenses is

punishable.



Article 227 (Section 1) (lighter punishment for the offender

under the age of 18): An offender who is under the age of 18

may have his punishment reduced or commuted.



Article 228: Any person who has committed rape against anyone

under his jurisdiction at an institution or facility shall be

punished with a prison term of not less than six months and

not more than five years. Any person who has committed an

indecent act against anyone under his jurisdiction shall be

punished with a prison term of not more than three years.



Article 229 (committing the offense by cheating): Any person

who by fraudulent means induces a person to mistake him or

her for a spouse and then has carnal relations with him or

her shall be punished with a prison term of not less than

three years and not more than 10 years. An attempt to commit

the above offense is punishable.



Article 229 (Section 1) (indictment upon request): Any person

who has committed rape against his or her spouse, or any

person who has committed the offense before reaching the age

of 18, shall be indicted by the prosecutor upon receiving a

request from the victim. The penalties for trafficking are at

least as heavy if not heavier than the penalties for rape and

forcible sexual assault.



From January 2006 to February 2007, 5 employers (or members

of their family) were prosecuted for sexually assaulting

foreign laborers. Prosecutors sought sentences from 7-12

years for each defendant.



29 E. Legalization/Decriminalization of Prostitution



Taiwan criminalized prostitution in 1997. It remained legal

in Taipei City on a small scale until 2001.



According to Article 80 of the Social Order Maintenance Law

(passed in 1991),anyone found to have traded sex for a

reward, financial or otherwise, shall be punished with three

days in jail, or a fine of no more than NT $30,000 (US $910).

Brothel owners, pimps, and enforcers are also subject to the

punishments prescribed in Article 231 and 232 of the Criminal

Code. These laws are enforced.



Article 231: A person who induces, retains, or introduces a

female or male person to have sexual relations with a third

person, or any person who retains her or him for that

purpose, shall be imprisoned for no more than five years, and

fined not more than NT $100,000 (US $3,200).



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Article 232: A person who commits an offense specified in

paragraph (1) of Article 231, or paragraphs (1) or (2) of

Article 231-1 against a person subject to his supervision,

assistance, or care as specified in Article 228, or a husband

who commits such an offense against his wife, shall receive

the punishment prescribed by those Articles, with prison time

and fines increased up to one half.



According to August 2006 press reports, former legal

prostitutes and others in Taipei called for prostitution to

be de-criminalized. No formal action has been taken by the

central or local governments.



29 F. Prosecutions



According to MOJ, in 2006, law enforcement officials reported

to MOJ 41 cases of labor brokers illegally detaining workers

or improperly demanding extra-contractual payments, 309 cases

of employers harboring foreigners, 1584 cases of employers

hiring foreign workers without proper permit, 110 cases of

employers allowing their approved foreign workers to work for

an unauthorized third party, and 618 cases of employers

assigning foreign workers to perform unauthorized work or to

relocate to an unauthorized work site. The majority of these

cases were punished administratively pursuant to Articles 57

and 63 of the ESA, which specifies that illegal employment

and detention of foreign workers can be punished by fines of

NT $150,000-750,000 (US $5,000-25,000),and their licenses to

recruit and employ foreign laborers can be partially or fully

revoked.



From January 2006 through February 2007, district prosecutors

filed 62 criminal cases against 122 defendants for violations

of the ESA. Twenty-one individuals were convicted of

violating Article 63 (illegal employment of a foreign

worker). Eight defendants were sentenced to less than six

months in prison, eight were imprisoned for hard labor, and

five were fined between NT $150,000-750,000. Another

fourteen individuals were convicted of violating Article 64

(illegal transfer of a foreign worker to a third party). All

fourteen defendants were sentenced to less than six months in

prison, two were assigned to hard labor, and five were fined

between NT $100,000-500,000.



According to the EY Report on the Prevention of Trafficking,

five human trafficking rings were investigated in 2006,

including four sex-trafficking operations and one labor

trafficking scheme. Thirty-three illegal brokers were caught

during these operations.



According to MOJ, 36 sex-trafficking cases and two

labor-trafficking cases were prosecuted in 2006, involving

229 defendants altogether. Because Taiwan has no specialized

anti-trafficking law, prosecutors resorted to various

criminal statutes to prosecute alleged traffickers.



Three individuals were charged with violating Article 15 of

the Taiwan-PRC Relations Act (smuggling PRC nationals into

Taiwan, illegal or unauthorized work or conduct),and four

were accused of violating Article 79 (violating the Act for

profit).



Three individuals were prosecuted for violating Article 23 of

the CYSTPA (soliciting or facilitating child prostitution).



Under the Criminal Code, seventeen individuals were charged

with violating Article 216 (using forged government

documents),and twenty-one were charged for violating Article

214 (inducing a public official to perform a false or

dishonest act.) Twenty-eight individuals were charged with

violating Article 231 (procurement) and eighteen were charged

with violating Article 231-1 (forced prostitution).

Seventy-four were charged with violating Article 296



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(slavery),one defendant was charged under Article 304 (use

of violence or coercion to compel another),one defendant was

charged under Article 221 (rape),and one defendant was

charged under Article 185-4 (vehicular bodily

harm/manslaughter). Eight of the aforementioned defendants

were charged under recidivist statutes, mandating prison time

of up to five years.



The EY Report on the Prevention of Trafficking also stated

that from January through the end of February 2007, law

enforcement officials had investigated 23 additional human

trafficking operations, including four labor exploitation and

19 sexual exploitation rings. According to the EY, 160

traffickers have been apprehended.



The Taiwan legislature is currently considering a proposal to

amend the Passport Statute to punish those who confiscate the

passports of Taiwan nationals with up to five years of jail

time and a fine not to exceed NT $500,000.



29 G. Information on Traffickers and Beneficiaries of

Trafficking



Trafficking of PRC nationals into Taiwan is largely

controlled by smugglers (snakeheads) affiliated with

organized crime syndicates of varying sizes and

sophistication. There are also instances of freelance

Taiwanese traffickers who collude with marriage brokers to

arrange fraudulent marriages with women from the PRC and

other Southeast Asian countries. These women often who

become victims of trafficking upon arrival in Taiwan.

Contract labor brokers are also responsible for much of the

labor trafficking in Taiwan. There are no clear numbers to

indicate what percentage of victims are trafficked into

Taiwan by what means.



There were few official reports of government involvement in

trafficking, although NGOs have accused local police

officials of cooperating with marriage and labor brokers to

block trafficking investigations. There is also no

indication of where profits from trafficking are being

channeled.



29 H. Taiwan Investigation of Trafficking Cases



The Taiwan government actively investigates cases of

trafficking. The National Immigration Agency (NIA),National

Police Administration (NPA),the Criminal Investigation

Bureau, Coast Guard Agency, prosecutors, and local law

enforcement cooperatively plan and implement investigations

and sting operations to interdict labor and sex trafficking

cases. To the extent permitted by domestic law, law

enforcement officials use a variety of techniques and

resources to gather information and evidence against

traffickers, including but not limited to electronic

surveillance, undercover operations, paid informants, and the

use of mitigated punishment and immunity for suspects who

assist with investigations and prosecutions.



From January to late March 2007, Taiwan authorities disrupted

four trafficking operations, including one labor trafficking

operation and three sex-trafficking rings. Altogether,

police arrested 83 suspects in Ilan, Kaohsiung, Keelung, and

Taipei. More than 40 trafficking victims were rescued from

sex- or labor-trafficking exploitation.



29 I. Specialized Training for Taiwan Government Officials



CLA and BLA train local government labor inspectors and

counseling personnel to identify and protect trafficking

victims. All inspectors and counselors attend special

training sessions to identify and assist victims of

trafficking, and are provided with guidelines and standard

operating procedures for identifying trafficking victims.



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MOJ prosecutors periodically train police, immigration

officials, and other law enforcement personnel how to

identify and protect trafficking victims during

investigations and how to conduct trafficking investigations

to increase the probability of conviction at trial.



MOFA conducts regular training of its consular officers to

assist them in detecting and preventing the fraudulent use of

marriage visas to traffick women into Taiwan.



NIA and NPA regularly conduct training of immigration and

police officers to improve their ability to detect and assist

trafficking victims.



29 J. International Cooperation in TIP Enforcement



The United States and Taiwan signed an "Agreement on Mutual

Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters" on March 26, 2002.

With U.S. assistance, Taiwan prosecutors indicted an

individual for smuggling PRC nationals into the United States.



29 K. Taiwan Extradition of Traffickers



Taiwan has an informal repatriation agreement with the

People's Republic of China. Under the Kinmen Accord of 1990,

Taiwan and Mainland China repatriate convicted and suspected

criminals, as well as illegal immigrants, to each other's

jurisdiction.



Taiwan has extradition agreements with Costa Rica, the

Dominican Republic, Dominique, Malawi, Paraguay, South

Africa, and Swaziland. Taiwan and the United States have

agreed to a legal assistance framework.



If the extradition candidate is a Taiwan citizen, Taiwan law

requires the government to refuse the request, and refer the

candidate to Taiwan's legal system for prosecution.



According to the MOI and NIA, the lack of formal diplomatic

relations with other countries from which persons are

trafficked hinders Taiwan's ability to extradite persons who

are charged with trafficking.



29 L. Evidence of Taiwan Government Tolerance or Involvement

in TIP



There is no evidence of widespread government involvement in

or tolerance of trafficking in persons. NGOs report that the

level of government competency and awareness of TIP at the

local level is uneven. NGOs also claim that some local

officials are corrupt and work with brokers to turn a blind

eye to trafficking.



Incidents of Taiwan authorities supporting trafficking

directly or indirectly are rare, but incidents do occur. In

October 2006, authorities charged a senior immigration

official with cooperating with a brothel owner to smuggle

more than 80 Chinese prostitutes into Taiwan. In February

2007, police arrested a Kaohsiung city councilmember for

coercing Vietnamese women into prostitution.



There were press reports in 2005 alleging that legislators

and high-level government officials had received kickbacks

from the labor brokerage companies involved in the Kaohsiung

Rapid Transit Company foreign labor scandal. There was

speculation that legislators were personally involved in and

profiting from the importation of foreign labor to Taiwan.

Sources have told AIT that they believe legislators would

oppose elimination of the foreign labor brokerage system for

personal financial reasons.



29 M. Steps to End Official Participation in TIP





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Aside from the two cases mentioned in paragraph 29 L, there

have been no reported cases of government officials directly

involved in trafficking. The law provides enhanced penalties

for government officials convicted of trafficking offenses.



29 N. Taiwan as a Child Sex Tourism Destination



Taiwan does not have an identified child sex tourism problem.

The CYSTPA imposes criminal penalties on Taiwan citizens

arrested abroad for having or attempting to have sexual

relations with minors.



29 O. Taiwan Ratification of International Instruments



As a non-UN member, Taiwan is unable to become a party to the

1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in 1995 that it would

respect the "spirit and principles" of the Convention. In

1999, a Child Welfare Bureau was established within the

Ministry of Interior to bolster Taiwan's ability to implement

the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to coordinate

with NGOs. In April 2001, President Chen reiterated that

Taiwan would abide by the Convention.



For the same reasons, Taiwan is also unable to become a party

to the ILO Conventions 29, 105, 182 the UN Convention Against

Transnational Organized Crime, and the Protocol to Prevent,

Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, but the

authorities make every effort to abide by the principles of

those Conventions and Protocols. In November 2006, a

proposal was submitted to the Legislative Yuan recommending

that Taiwan comply with the UN Convention Against

Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent,

Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, even if Taiwan

cannot join. The proposal is still under consideration.



Section 4 - PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS



30 A. Taiwan Assistance to Victims



After being taken into custody by law enforcement officials,

all trafficking victims from the PRC are housed at the

remaining PRC-citizen-only detention facility in Ilan while

awaiting repatriation. Women and underage trafficking

victims are separated from the general detention facility

population. Trafficking victims from other countries, such

as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, are housed at the

Sanhsia facility in Taipei County, or are held in local

jails. Trafficking victims are kept apart from the general

population in local jails. The detention centers and local

jails provide victims with temporary shelter, and access to

medical and counseling services while they are awaiting

repatriation. Trafficking victims can be transferred to

local hospitals for further medical treatment if necessary.



NGOs protest the incarceration of trafficking victims, and

continue to lobby the government to halt this practice,

arguing that trafficking victims are not criminals and should

not be deprived of their personal liberty. NIA and NPA

counter that incarceration is necessary to protect

trafficking victims from possible retaliation by brokers or

employers. NGO representatives are permitted to meet with

trafficking victims in detention facilities or local jails.

NGOs urge trafficking victims detained in this manner to

request permission to be sheltered at NGO-operated

facilities. These requests are sometimes granted for non-PRC

citizens.



Taiwan central and local governments subsidize 13 NGO

operated shelters for victims of trafficking. During 2006,

4,447 foreign workers sought shelter in these facilities.



CLA supports 24 Foreign Labor Consultant Service Centers

located around Taiwan. The Centers, operated by local



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governments with CLA funding, provide counseling, legal aid,

and labor dispute resolution services.



30 B. Taiwan Funding of NGOs Providing Services to Victims



The central government subsidizes the operation of 11

NGO-operated shelters for trafficking victims. The Taiwan

central government directly subsidizes these shelters, at US

$15 per person per day. During 2006, 4,447 foreign workers

sought shelter in CLA-sponsored facilities, and CLA

contributed NT $8.7 million (US $300,000) for that purpose.

CLA's 2007 annual budget for temporary shelters is NT $9.6

million (US $310,000). The Taipei and Kaohsiung City

governments fully fund one shelter each, operated by NGOs in

their respective districts.



30 C. Identification and Referral of Trafficking Victims



The Ministry of Justice, Prosecutorial Division has completed

a draft guideline for the identification of victims of

trafficking, as required by the Action Plan. According to

NIA, the Action Plan multi-agency task force has already

approved the guideline, which must be approved by the

Executive Yuan before it can be implemented. NIA expects the

guideline to be approved and disseminated to Taiwan law

enforcement, labor officials, and NGOs by mid-April 2007.

The guideline reads as follows:



Trafficking victims are identified as those:



1. Scouted, recruited, transported, sheltered, or introduced

to or removed from Taiwan through the use of coercion,

threat, intimidation, spying, or through restraint by the use

of drugs, hypnotism, fraud, debt or any other form of

restraint for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced

labor, or removal of organs;



2. Those under the age of 18 found conducting sexual

transactions should be treated as trafficking victims

regardless of the minor's consent or voluntary participation;



3. During the investigation or disruption of suspected human

trafficking rings, police, prosecutors, and other law

enforcement officials are required to pay special attention

to the following types of individuals to determine if they

are victims of trafficking:



(a) Children under the age of 18;



(b) Those subjected to involuntary transportation or

transfer to a different place or employer;



(c) Those subjected to abuse during their transportation to

Taiwan or transfer to another location within Taiwan. Abuse

includes but is not limited to forced confinement or

restricted communication with others, physical violence,

coercion, threat or intimidation, and sexual assault.



(d) Those subjected to abuse at their residence or work

location. Abuse includes but is not limited to forced

confinement or restricted communication with others, physical

violence, coercion, threat or intimidation, and sexual

assault.



(e) Those whose travel or identity documents have been

confiscated by another;



(f) Those who have had excessive amounts withheld from their

earnings, or who have not received fair pay for their work;



(g) Those who have been forced to perform work different

from that which they were agreed to do, or those who have

been forced to transfer to a different employer;





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(h) Any other person who can demonstrate he or she is a

victim of trafficking.



4. Law enforcement officers are required to conduct

questioning of potential trafficking victims with

interpreters and social workers, if necessary. If the

investigating officer is uncertain of whether an individual

is a trafficking victim, he or she is required to contact the

prosecutor's office for further guidance.



5. Trafficking victims must be clearly identified as such

during the booking and detention process, and must be

separated from other involved suspects for their protection.

Once individuals are identified as trafficking victims, law

enforcement officials must contact the appropriate social

welfare and labor services entities to arrange for

appropriate accommodations. Law enforcement officials must

inform trafficking victims of measures available for their

assistance and protection, and request their cooperation in

identifying and prosecuting the traffickers involved.



6. If prosecutors determine during further investigation

that an individual is not a victim of trafficking, the

prosecutor shall notify law enforcement for placement of the

individual in an appropriate detention facility.



End of Guideline



Taiwan local governments do not have a process in place to

refer trafficking victims from law enforcement custody to

NGOs that provide short- or long-term care. All PRC citizens

identified as trafficking victims are transferred to the Ilan

Detention Facility. At present, PRC citizen trafficking

victims are not eligible for transfer to NGO-operated shelter

facilities.



Non-PRC trafficking victims are housed at the Sanhsia

facility in Taipei and the Hsinchu detention facility

formerly used to house PRC nationals awaiting repatriation.

Some trafficking victims are also held by local police

departments. NGOs report that, thus far, the Taiwan

government has been unwilling to release trafficking victims

from the Sanhsia and Hsinchu facilities to the custody of NGO

shelters. However, NGOs also report that certain local

police departments have been willing to do so on a number of

occasions, strictly on an ad-hoc basis. NGOs allege the

government, focused on prosecuting traffickers, does too

little to inform detainees of their own legal rights and

remedies against their traffickers.



NGOs report that many trafficking victims presently in

NGO-operated shelters were referred to the shelters by local

law enforcement or Bureau of Labor Affairs (BLA) officials.

If a foreign worker reports illegal work, exploitative

working conditions, or other abuse to the police, the police

will refer the worker to the BLA who will assume

responsibility for the case. In the event of a police

referral, or if the worker complains directly to BLA, BLA is

required to arrange for a labor inspector and police officer

to visit the worksite and investigate the alleged illegal

work or abuse. BLA will also refer the worker to an

appropriate NGO-run shelter. NGOs complain that the

investigation can take longer than six months, during which

time the foreign worker is forbidden from working.



The local BLA office in Taoyuan has established an informal

policy that all victims of trafficking are to be sent

directly to NGO shelters, are not to be incarcerated, and are

not to be returned to the custody of their brokers or

employers. NGOs continue to lobby the CLA and local BLA

offices to institute this practice island-wide.



30 D. Rights and Treatment Afforded to Trafficking Victims





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The minority of trafficking victims are housed by

NGO-operated shelters. The majority of trafficking victims

are typically held in special detention facilities or local

jails. Until recently, PRC detainees, some of them

trafficking victims, were held in excess of a year before

being repatriated to the PRC. With recent improvements in

cross-Strait relations, waiting times for PRC citizens

awaiting repatriation are much shorter. While in detention,

victims are provided food and shelter, medical assistance and

psychological counseling, legal assistance, and entertainment

activities. NGOs are granted regular access to detainees,

and are allowed to conduct social and cultural activities.



Any foreign worker who has stayed in Taiwan illegally for

more than six months faces a maximum fine of US $5,000, in

addition to repatriation and permanent exclusion from Taiwan.

The CLA has emphasized that trafficking victims forced into

illegal status by mistreatment or exploitation would not be

repatriated, and their right to work in Taiwan would be

preserved.



In October 2006, CLA amended its regulations to exclude time

spent at a shelter from a foreign worker's permitted work

stay in Taiwan. Foreign workers are permitted to work in

Taiwan for up to three years at a time, for a maximum of six

years total. Before the rule change, the period of stay in a

shelter was counted toward this three/six year limit.

Because working is forbidden while awaiting the outcome of a

labor dispute, and because many foreign workers are in debt

to their brokers, many foreign workers chose to flee the

shelter and seek illegal work.



In January 2007, CLA extended by one month the legal

residency period of all foreign workers with pending labor

disputes. Many foreign workers were confronted with having

their claims dismissed because their Taiwan residency period

had or would soon expire.



The "Cross-Border Human Trafficking Prevention and Victim

Protection" amendment to the Immigration Act now under

consideration in the legislature chapter provides that if

trafficking victims agree to cooperate with prosecutors,

prosecutors can request MOJ permission to waive prosecution

for any crimes occasioned by the trafficking (i.e.,

immigration offenses, illegal work, prostitution, false

documents),and to punish leniently other misconduct by the

trafficking victim.



30 E. Victim Participation in Investigation and Prosecution

of Traffickers



The government encourages victims to assist in the

investigation and prosecution of trafficking crimes. If a

district prosecutor deems the testimony of a trafficking

victim to be necessary to a prosecution, the prosecutor can

arrange for the victim's legal residency period to be

extended. The trafficking victim will most likely be housed

in a detention facility or local jail during this process.

Victims are not allowed to obtain other employment or to

leave the country while serving as witnesses in court cases.



Trafficking victims may ask for compensation by attaching a

civil suit to the criminal prosecution against the

trafficker, but this happens infrequently. Once they have

been arrested, most trafficking victims wish to leave Taiwan

as soon as possible, and few wish to stay or take legal

action against their traffickers or former employers. Taiwan

has increased funding to the Legal Affairs Foundation to

assist trafficking victims with the pursuit of claims against

traffickers.



Taiwan entitles those who have been injured, or the family of

one who has been killed, to request compensation from the

government. With the exception of the PRC, this law extends



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to foreign nationals on a reciprocal basis. Taiwan uses its

anti-money laundering law to seize traffickers' assets and to

make those assets available to satisfy trafficking victims'

claims.

Alleging criminal misconduct against an employer carries

significant risk for a foreign worker. Under current law, if

the prosecutor decides not to indict or prosecute the

employer, or if after prosecution fails to convict the

employer, the foreign worker is automatically repatriated.



30 F. Protection of Victims and Witnesses



Trafficking victims are placed in protective custody at

detention centers or in local jails while serving as

witnesses in court cases. The government has a witness

protection law that protects women from retaliation and helps

encourage their cooperation in investigating trafficking

rings. Trafficking victims are permitted to conceal their

identity while giving testimony.



All PRC citizens identified as trafficking victims are

transferred to the Ilan Detention Facility. At present, PRC

citizen trafficking victims are not eligible for transfer to

NGO-operated shelter facilities. Non-PRC trafficking victims

are housed at the Sanhsia facility in Taipei and the Hsinchu

detention facility formerly used to house PRC nationals

awaiting repatriation. Some trafficking victims are also

held by local police departments. On an ad-hoc basis, local

police are sometimes willing to release trafficking victims

to the custody of NGO shelters.



30 G. Taiwan Specialized Training for Officials Dealing with

Trafficking, Especially Related to Victim Protection



In June 2006, the MOJ sponsored six seminars organized by the

Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation to provide professional

training for prosecutors assigned to trafficking cases. From

November 2006 to January 2007, the Taiwan government funded

three seminars on the resettlement and protection of human

trafficking victims. The events were organized by a

coalition of NGOs to bring together foreign and local

experts, academics, social workers, and government

representatives from the National Police Agency, Council for

Labor Affairs, Health Department, and Ministry of Justice.

During 2006, NGO personnel were regularly invited to speak to

police officers, prosecutors, immigration officials and

others to enhance their understanding of the needs of

trafficking victims.



The NIA, CLA/BLA, national and local police agencies, and the

national and local prosecutors' offices cooperate with NGOs

and civic organizations to identify trafficking victims and

to place them in appropriate shelter environments. NGO

representatives are permitted to accompany victims to police

interviews, labor hearings, and court appearances, and to

provide interpretation and other services.



MOFA conducts regular training of its consular officers to

assist them in detecting and preventing the fraudulent use of

marriage visas to traffick women into Taiwan.



NIA and NPA regularly conduct training of immigration and

police officers to improve their ability to detect and assist

trafficking victims.



30 H. Taiwan Assistance to Repatriated Nationals who are

Victims of Trafficking



The Taiwan National Immigration Agency (NIA) reported that 59

female trafficking victims were returned from Japan to Taiwan

in 2006. The Taiwan government provided medical and

financial assistance, counseling, and other aid to help these

women return to normal lives.





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30 I. NGOS Working with Trafficking Victims in Taiwan and

Cooperation with the Taiwan Government



The Garden of Hope Foundation, End Child Prostitution,

Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT) Taiwan, the Taipei

Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF),Hope Workers' Center, the

Center for Migrants' Concerns, the Vietnamese Migrant Workers

and Brides Office (VMWBO),the Taiwan Grassroots Women

Workers' Center, the Taiwan International Workers'

Association, the Stella Maris International Service Center,

the Catholic and Presbyterian Churches, and other religious

and secular NGOs are at work in Taiwan to provide shelter,

counseling, legal, medical, and financial assistance, public

advocacy, social and cultural activities, repatriation

assistance, and other services to Taiwan's foreign worker

community, including victims of sex and labor trafficking.

The Taiwan government has a strong working relationship with

NGOs, and is generally open to their input and criticism.

NGOs also receive substantial funding from central and local

government authorities to perform services for trafficking

victims.



2. (SBU) TIME SPENT ON REPORT:



FN-10, 10 hours

FN-09, 20 hours

FO-03, 130 hours

FO-02, 3 hours

FE-MC, 1 hour



3. (U) POST TIP POINT OF CONTACT:



Brad S. Parker

Political Officer

American Institute in Taiwan

Taipei, Taiwan

Phone: (011) (886) (2) 2162-2086

Fax: (011) (886) (2) 2162-2241

Email: parkerbs@state.gov

WANG