Taiwan detains four illegal immigrants

During a night patrol last Thursday, January 3, police officers in Hsinchu City in northern Taiwan spotted a Vietnamese man, surnamed Nguyen, wandering the street and acting suspiciously.

They found that he had no identification papers and had tools used for smoking meth, the Chinese-language ETToday reported.

Police then took Nguyen to his rented apartment to get the papers. When Nguyen deliberately delayed unlocking the door, they decided to conduct a raid.

They found three other Vietnamese men hiding under a spring-mattress. Initial investigations revealed that all four were illegal immigrants.

They are now being held at police station pending further investigation for violating Taiwan’s immigration laws.

The arrest of the four men follows the major scandal of 152 Vietnamese tourists going missing after arriving in Taiwan last month. Some of the people who have since been caught admitted they hoped to work in Taiwan illegally.

Ever since Taiwan lifted a 10-year ban on certain categories of Vietnamese workers in 2015, the territory has emerged as a promising destination for Vietnamese workers looking for jobs overseas. The average wage that Taiwanese employers pay to Vietnamese workers is around $700- $800 a month.

In 2018, 65,000 Vietnamese workers were sent to Taiwan, accounting for nearly half of Vietnam's overseas workforce last year.