The National Human Rights Commission is asking government agencies to assist a teenager and her younger brother in obtaining citizenship, after finding out they are undocumented after being born to a Vietnamese mother with no legal status in the country.
The case highlights deficiencies in the nation’s household registration and social welfare system, which have led to the children’s basic rights being affected, as they face restrictions to their education, health insurance and related government services, the commission said in a statement on Wednesday.
The commission issued the statement after local media reported that a 15-year-old girl, identified as “Siao Si” (小西), and her nine-year-old brother did not have a household registration despite being born in Taiwan.
Photo: Ho Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Siao Si’s case gained attention last year when she finished Grade 9. She was not allowed to join her classmates on their junior-high school graduation trip, because group insurance was required for the bus journey and she could not register for it due to her lack of citizenship.
Although their father is Taiwanese, the children’s births could not be registered because their mother had no official status after she left her legal job.
While working as an undocumented migrant worker, she gave birth to Siao Si and her brother. Their mother is reportedly married to a man in Vietnam.
A social worker who knows the family and has assisted them for many years said there are numerous legal barriers when an undocumented migrant worker gets pregnant in Taiwan, as it involves the Nationality Act (國籍法) and the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法).
The immigration authorities had tracked down the mother years ago, and were ready to send her back to Vietnam, but she was treated as a “special case” and allowed to stay with her family, the social worker said.
“The government has on humanitarian grounds provided basic protection, family services and social programs for children born to undocumented migrant workers, but each country has their own national security and particular factors to consider,” the social worker said.
“These children are granted a temporary resident certificate, allowing them to attend a local school, and to take the entrance examinations for high school, college and university,” the social worker said. “However, these children cannot write any professional certification examinations or any qualification tests that require the Taiwan citizenship ID card.”
“When they reach adulthood, the basic services and welfare programs for children are withdrawn, and their situation gets much worse, as without an ID card, they cannot get a legal job and face many difficulties,” she said.
Legally, the mother must take both children back to Vietnam, and obtain government authorized documents proving she is no longer married to her husband in Vietnam and that he is not the father of the children.
Her Taiwanese husband must undergo a DNA test to prove he is the father, and the couple must take the government documents to their local district household registration office to register the children’s births in Taiwan before they can obtain citizenship and identification papers.
However, the father is opposed to the mother taking their children to Vietnam, as he is concerned for their safety, and the mother is unwilling to go back to face government bureaucracy, the social worker said.
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