Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) The Control Yuan on Friday censured the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office over several high-profile incidents involving Taiwanese being lured to Southeast Asian countries where they were forced to work for fraud rings.
In a statement, the government watchdog said Control Yuan Members Yeh Ta-hua (???) and Chi Hui-jung (???) will hold a news conference on Aug. 21 to detail the reasons for the censure.
The two have been investigating incidents that saw large number of Taiwanese tricked by fake job listings into going to Cambodia or Myanmar, thinking they would be paid generously to work in secretarial positions or as customer service personnel.
According to media reports, once there the victims were forced to turn in their identity documents and kept in compounds they were not allowed to leave.
Individuals were then assigned work to defraud Chinese-language speakers by telephone or text, and those who refused to comply were tortured, according to media reports.
Yeh and Chi said at the time that they would investigate how proactively Taiwan’s authorities acted to crack down on organized crime, whether they meted out sufficient punishments to parties at fault, provided victims with any substantive assistance, and whether they increased criminal investigation staff to prevent similar incidents from occurring.
