REPORT REPERCUSSIONS: Responding to a report by the US Department of State, the NGOs said the government must prioritize the passage of the anti-human trafficking law

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Saturday, Jun 07, 2008, Page 4

In response to a human trafficking report released by the US , a Taipei-based non-governmental organization (NGO) urged the government to increase the effectiveness of its anti-human trafficking efforts yesterday.

The Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 released on Wednesday by the US Department of State places Taiwan on a list of “Tier 2” countries for human trafficking, the same rating as last year.

It described Taiwan as a destination for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Taiwan was also a source of women trafficked to Japan , Australia , the UK and the US , the report said.

The Anti-Human Trafficking Association, founded last year by 11 of the nations NGOs, said in a news conference that the report indicates that there is still a lot to be done by the Taiwanese government to prevent human trafficking and to protect the rights of the victims.

The report made four recommendations ― to pass and implement a comprehensive anti-trafficking law as soon as possible; to apply the Labor Standards Law (勞動基準法) to foreign workers employed as private nursing caregivers or domestic helpers, who are especially vulnerable to labor exploitation; to strengthen communication among government agencies and enhance international cooperation; and to collaborate with local NGOs.

“To combat sex and labor exploitation, we strongly urge the government to prioritize the passage of the anti-human trafficking law,” said Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭), president of the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation ― one of the organizers of the Anti-Human Trafficking Association.

She said that although Taiwan has formal victim identification procedures and personnel are trained in these procedures, immigration officers, police, prosecutors and other law enforcement authorities often still classify victims of human trafficking as illegal immigrants or runaway foreign workers with illegal status and consequently many trafficking victims are detained, prosecuted, fined or jailed, ultimately to be deported.

Yeh said: “In order to help trafficking victims and bring the human traffickers to justice, we have to identify victims using a broad definition and increase penalties for human trafficking significantly.”

The report said that the majority of victims were treated simply as illegal immigrants or illegal laborers and housed in formal, long-term detention facilities that were sometimes plagued by overcrowding and poor sanitation.

Regina Fuchs, a German sociologist working in Taiwan , said it is precisely the exploitation, the failure to enforce laws protecting the rights of workers and the restricted mobility of legal laborers that has caused the increase in the number of runaways and illegal workers in recent years.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” she said. “The government must take immediate steps to confront and resolve these issues.”

Lee Li-feng (李麗芬), secretary-general of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes Taiwan, said the report pointed out for the first time that even though Taiwan has an extra-territorial law criminalizing the sexual exploitation of children by Taiwanese traveling abroad, the government had not taken other steps during the last year to reduce the demand for child sex tourism in the nation.