Police over the weekend warned that human traffickers are using foreign brides and fake marriage citizenship deals to lure victims to Southeast Asia.
Other trafficking ploys involve offering people high-paying jobs overseas, but men are now being promised money to go to Thailand to marry a local woman, or to marry someone to gain citizenship, National Police Agency (NPA) officials said on Saturday.
One recent case led to the arrest of four people who face human trafficking and unlawful confinement charges, officials said, adding that they are allegedly members of a ring running the new foreign bride scam.
Victims are imprisoned and forced to work for online scammers, while organ harvesting is another risk, officials said.
A 32-year-old man surnamed Wang (王) said that he signed up last year to go to Thailand after seeing advertisements promising to match single men with young Thai women who were willing to marry them and live in Taiwan.
“I was told that even if I do not find any suitable brides, I could then enter into a fake marriage ... and get paid NT$150,000 as a reward,” said Wang, adding that this is a way for foreigners to obtain Taiwanese citizenship.
Wang said he flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in November last year, and was abducted by three muscular men after exiting the airport.
He said he was confined and then shoved into a car, which headed into the countryside toward Thailand’s border with Myanmar.
When he reached the border, he shouted and struggled, creating a commotion, and as the men did not want trouble, they dumped him and drove away, Wang said.
He said he then asked the Thai authorities for help.
Wang contacted a friend who has connections in Thailand, and they arranged a car to transport him back to Bangkok, where he stayed to receive other assistance, before returning to Taiwan in December last year, he said.
After returning home, Wang gave the authorities the name of the woman, surnamed Liao (廖), who used Facebook and other social media to circulate the foreign bride advertisements.
Police arrested Liao, 47, and three men in Taipei and Taoyuan, officials said.
Liao is an Indonesian who had married and settled in Taiwan, while the three men, surnamed Chen (陳), Huang (黃) and Hsu (許), were working for her, they said.
While being questioned, Liao said she was offered a reward of NT$250,000 for each person brought to Thailand, and was told to target single Taiwanese men aged between 30 and 40 by enticing them with photographs of young, good-looking women from Southeast Asian countries.
The NPA said this is connected to criminal groups operating Cambodian online scams.
The criminals bribe Thai customs officers to get their victims across the border, an official said.
People are advised to download the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Travel Safety Guidance” (旅外安全指南) free mobile phone app, the NPA said in a news release.
“If you get into danger when overseas, the first thing to do is to contact Taiwan’s official representative or consular office in the country, which can then start to coordinate a rescue effort,” the NPA said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and