Lawmakers and members of a private self-help group said yesterday that some foreign women married to local men are being denied their basic rights and urged the incoming government to address the situation.
Josephine Chu (
"Besides the need to become accustomed to the way of life in Taiwan, these young women are usually expected to take care of all the domestic chores. Still, their basic rights are not properly protected," Chu said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES.
She said that official figures show that there are over 100,000 foreign women married to local men. Most of them come from Southeast Asia and China.
Currently, foreigners can apply for ROC citizenship after they have been married to local citizens for three years, but they must first relinquish their original nationality.
If they do not wish to give up their citizenship, they can apply for permanent residency after they have been married five years.
However, unless they obtain ROC citizenship, these foreign spouses are required to apply for permits with the government before they are allowed to work in Taiwan, although the procedures are simpler than those for average foreigners.
Chu said this requirement has become an obstacle for many foreign wives, because most employers would rather work around the law where possible instead of going through the legal paper work.
In cases where a couple divorces before the foreign spouse obtains citizenship or permanent residency, foreign wives without children are not allowed to stay in Taiwan because they do not have a household registration certificate, Chu noted.
Chu said that these women cannot inherit their husbands' property in case of death and have problems obtaining legal custody of their children in case of divorce.
"These situations give their husbands and in-laws the chance to take advantage of these women's helplessness to exploit them," Chu said.
Sister Stephana Wei Wei (
Wei also said that the center has encountered some extreme cases, where the husbands or in-laws do not allow the foreign wives to learn Mandarin or Taiwanese to keep them from seeking outside help.
"A large number of women are being kept in the dark about what their rights are. We don't know what sort of conditions they are living under and what their problems are," Wei said.
Mercy, a Filipino woman who has been married to a Taiwanese husband for 15 years, said she has heard a lot of stories about the miseries of women who have married local men, although her own marriage is a happy one.
"One woman whose husband died was not allowed to stay in the country because she did not have a household registration certificate," Mercy said.
"Another friend telephoned me in tears because her in-laws were trying to beat her," she said.
Hsia Hsiao-chuan (夏曉鵑), an assistant professor at Shih Hsin University's graduate school for social transformation studies has conducted research into the situation. Hsia said that many Taiwanese men who marry Southeast Asian women are farmers, laborers and even the physically or mentally challenged.
"They tend to be the neglected groups in society and have tried to resolve their problem of finding a mate by looking for women in third-world countries who have limited finances," Hsia said.
Since 1990 more and more foreign wives have been coming from Indonesia and Vietnam, she said.
However, as the government did not begin keeping records of foreign wives until 1994, their numbers are in all likelihood underreported, Hsia said.
Hsia pointed out that while these women have difficulty getting a job without an ROC identification card, this problem sometimes continues even after they get ROC citizenship because the government may not recognize their educational credentials obtained in their mother countries.
"The government must stop treating them as second-class citizens, because they are an important group of women who are raising our next generation," Hsia said.
She said the present system is damaging the positive potential that these women could have in society. Isolating them from others and restricting their personal freedom is no way to treat these woman or any others, for that matter, she said.
DPP legislator Fan Sun-lu (
Fan said she believes the new government will coordinate among the relevant ministries and agencies to try to improve the situation.
As far as the Ministry of Education is concerned, Fan said, it needs to extend the adult education programs to newly arrived foreign wives to help their Chinese literacy so that they can better integrate into society.
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,
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
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
RSS