Taiwan smashes 'largest-ever' human smuggling ring

Taiwan smashes 'largest-ever' human smuggling ring

Central News Agency

2009-06-18 06:48 PM

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Taipei, June 18 (CNA) Immigration authorities announced Thursday that they have smashed the largest-ever human smuggling ring in Taiwan's history, a case that involved over 50 Chinese children who were taken to the United States using fake documents obtained from Taiwanese parents and accompanied by a Taiwanese chaperone. Members of the human trafficking gang swindled local children's ID documents from their parents and used them to apply for Republic of China passports which were later doctored with photos of the Chinese children, according to the Border Affairs Corps of the National Immigration Agency.

Ring members then used these forged passports to apply for U.S.

visas. Once they got the visas in Taiwan, they took the fake passports to Hong Kong, where the fake passport holders, mainly underage children from China, would use them to travel to the United States, accompanied by one of several Taiwanese women hired by the gang to serve as a pseudo parent or guardian for the child to dupe U.S. immigration officials.

These Taiwanese women, aware or unaware of the scheme, were paid US$1,000 to US$1,500 in reward for each trip.

Under the fraudulent scheme, more than 50 Chinese children, all underage girls, have successfully entered the United States using the fake ROC passports, the corps said.

A total of 74 Taiwanese suspects allegedly involved in the smuggling operation have been handed over to the Taoyuan Prosecutors Office for further investigation, according to the agency.

The corps said it tracked down the ring after analyzing clues from scores of cases which seemed irrelevant on the surface. It finally solved the case following months of investigations.

(By Flor Wang)

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