After the rape of three mentally challenged women in a charity carwash, a parents' group said yesterday disadvantaged people should not be over protected because of the incident.
"We must not give up their right to work and to adapt to society," said Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), chairperson of the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability (智障者家長總會).
The Sunshine Carwash Center (陽光洗車中心) in Hsintien (新店), a government-sponsored work-place, operated by the Sunshine Foundation for Social Welfare, made a public apology yesterday and said more female supervisors would be employed in the workplace.
According to Taipei County police reports on Friday, the three employees at the Sunshine Carwash Center said they were raped by their supervisor Liu Ming-fa (
Liu, 44, who is physically disabled because of polio, was said to have raped the three women since July. He attacked the victims before work, in the early morning, on the pretext of doing health checkups and threatened to sack the three if they told anyone.
In response to parents' concern over the safety of working places for the mentally challenged, Chen said society should give the disabled more support and not stop them from having jobs and a life in the community.
"In Taiwan, one family out of 50 has a mentally challenged member. If parents impose too much protection on their children, the life of the mentally challenged will increasingly tend towards social segregation from mainstream society."
Chen emphasized that public attention should be directed to the problems of sexual assault and discrimination in the workplace.
According to Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a director from the Awakening Foundation and an attorney at law, a conviction of sexual assault to a mentally challenged person would could result in a seven-year to life sentence.
Yu also pointed out, that under the newly amended Employment Services Law, the employer would have a fine imposed on him ranging from NT$3,000 to NT$30,000, if there was a proven case of sexual assault or sexual discrimination in the workplace.
The Sunshine Foundation of Social Welfare was founded eight-years ago and now runs two carwash centers in Taipei, hiring 65 physically or mentally challenged staffers, three social workers and an instructor.
Ting Mei-yun, (
"The center is a place to provide opportunity for the disabled to be part of the society. We are very sorry and the last thing we wanted to happen has, in fact, happened."
Ting said the center will increase the number of female supervisors and ensure they accompany the employees at all times while they are working.
The foundation has been providing psychological counseling for the three victims since last week, and parents of the women agreed they should resume work when they felt ready, Ting said.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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