VZCZCXRO6492
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHIN #1912/01 2340132
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 220132Z AUG 07 ZDK
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6469
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 7146
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL PRIORITY 8839
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 9000
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU PRIORITY 2045
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU PRIORITY 0475
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG PRIORITY 8401
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI PRIORITY 1295
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG PRIORITY 6014
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 001912 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OMIG KCRM PHUM KWMN ELAB SMIG ASEC KFRD PREF
PGOV, CH, TW 
SUBJECT: AIT VISITS SANHSIA IMMIGRATION DETENTION FACILITY: 
ROOM TO IMPROVE 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Most detainees at the Sanhsia detention 
facility initially came to Taiwan on legal work visas, but 
became illegal workers after seeking higher wages with 
unauthorized employers, or by staying to work after their 
visas had expired.  Detainees arrive at Sanhsia after their 
arrest by police, immigration, or coast guard authorities. 
They remain there until a county prosecutor decides to 
prosecute or deport them.  Most detainees stay no more than 
40 days, though six detainees have been at Sanhsia in excess 
of nine months, awaiting prosecutors' decisions.  Detainees 
live in sanitary, if slightly cramped conditions, are 
provided decent meals and access to medical care and 
exercise.  AIT observed detention center staff and detainees 
treating each other with courtesy and respect.  The Director 
of the Sanhsia facility insisted his responsibility is to 
provide humane treatment to detainees, not to determine if 
they are victims of trafficking; therefore, Sanhsia officers 
rarely refer suspected trafficking victims to superiors at 
the National Immigration Agency (NIA) for reclassification as 
victims, rather than illegal immigrants.  Sanhsia's Director 
admitted to AIT that, under Taiwan's existing immigration 
system, trafficking victims can still too easily fall through 
the cracks.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  On August 15, AIT Human Rights Officer visited the 
National Immigration Agency (NIA) detention center for 
non-PRC nationals, located in Sanhsia Township, Taipei 
County.  AIT accompanied two social workers and two nuns 
affiliated with Hope Workers' Center (HWC), located in 
Taoyuan.  According to Director Lin Ching-lung, the Sanhsia 
facility currently houses 256 individuals, including 132 men 
and 124 women.  This is near its monthly average of 250 
detainees.  According to Lin, ninety percent of the detainees 
at Sanhsia entered Taiwan legally to work, but decided to 
flee their assigned employers to seek better pay, or 
continued to work illegally after their work visas expired. 
The remaining ten percent used visitors' visas or were 
smuggled into Taiwan to work illegally. 
 
¶3.  Men and women are housed on different floors of the 
detention facility.  Muslims, mostly from Indonesia, are 
housed separately from non-Muslims (mostly Filipinos, 
Malaysians, Thais and Vietnamese), to honor their special 
dietary restrictions and daily worship regimen.  Detainees 
are kept behind bars in groups of 50-70.  They sleep in bunk 
beds and share a large common room for eating and watching 
television.  Bathroom facilities are concealed from the 
guards' view.  Detainees are permitted to keep toiletries and 
a small amount of clothing with them in detention.  Their 
luggage and other personal effects are stored in a separate 
locked room.   AIT observed one female detainee with a 
newborn infant.  A guard advised that both mother and child 
would be relocated to an NGO shelter within the next few 
days.  According to Director Lin's deputy, Commander Lin 
Chun-liang, detainees receive three meals per day.  At lunch 
on the day AIT visited, the detainees were offered chicken 
legs, fish balls, rice, vegetables, and whole fruit.  One of 
the HWC nuns who visits the detention facility regularly 
remarked to AIT that the meal was slightly better than usual, 
in that detainees typically are given only one type of 
protein per meal, and fruit only a few times per week. 
 
¶4.  Commander Lin told AIT that a doctor visits the facility 
three days each week, and that emergency medical care is 
available 24 hours a day.  Detainees are permitted to 
exercise outside two days each week.  Telephone calls are 
permitted on Tuesday, Thursday, and weekends.  Most detainees 
purchase long-distance calling cards to call relatives 
outside Taiwan.  NGOs, including Hope Workers' Center, often 
provide calling cards to those detainees who cannot afford to 
buy them.  One of the nuns told AIT that guards customarily 
treated detainees with courtesy and respect; AIT observed 
this to be the case during our visit.  Commander Lin told AIT 
that problematic detainees are sometimes separated from the 
rest of the group and held in a small detention cell for 
24-48 hours, to discourage them from further misconduct.  AIT 
inquired about two worn wooden batons seen hanging near a 
guard station.  Commander Lin said physical force is rarely 
 
TAIPEI 00001912  002 OF 002 
 
 
used against detainees.  A nun from HWC told AIT that, as 
little as two years ago, guards regularly punished detainees 
by forcing them to maintain strenuous physical positions. 
This practice was stopped after NGOs began to visit the 
facility regularly 18 months ago, she added. 
 
¶5.  Director Lin told AIT that detainees are sent to Sanhsia 
after their arrest by local police, immigration police, or 
coast guard authorities.  According to current guidelines, 
Lin said, the arresting officer should determine whether the 
individual is a trafficking victim or not, and report his or 
her findings to the local prosecutor's office.  The 
prosecutor should then review the arresting officer's report, 
and if necessary, conduct further investigation to determine 
whether the individual is a trafficking victim or an illegal 
immigrant.  Those deemed to be illegal immigrants are sent to 
one of three NIA detention centers for holding, until the 
prosecutor decides to file charges or to repatriate the 
arrestee to his or her home country. 
 
¶6.  Director Lin acknowledged to AIT that the current system 
relies too heavily on the arresting officer's initial report. 
 If the arresting officer is unsympathetic or does not 
understand the definition of a trafficking victim, Lin added, 
he might improperly classify someone as an immigration 
violator, instead of a trafficking victim.  Lin conceded that 
if the prosecutor is overworked and doesn't investigate 
further, it is possible for some trafficking victims to fall 
through the cracks.  He emphasized that his responsibility is 
not to investigate individual cases, but to provide humane 
treatment to the detainees while they await a prosecutor's 
decision to charge or repatriate them.  Nonetheless, he 
continued, NIA officers at Sanhsia interview all incoming 
detainees, and will on rare occasions contact the NIA central 
office to report potential trafficking victims.  The NIA will 
then contact the relevant prosecutor's office to suggest 
reconsideration of a particular individual's case.  According 
to Commander Lin, four Vietnamese women assigned to Sanhsia 
for holding are currently being reconsidered for NGO shelter 
care, following a recommendation by Sanhsia officers. 
 
¶7.  Commander Lin told AIT that most detainees spend no more 
than 30-40 days in detention before they are either 
prosecuted or repatriated.  However, AIT encountered one 
Indonesian fisherman who had been detained at Sanhsia for 
nearly ten months.  When asked about this case, Director Lin 
said the responsible prosecutor in Nantou County had not yet 
decided to charge or deport this man, despite repeated 
prodding from Lin and his seniors at NIA.  In reviewing the 
detention center's records, Director Lin also identified to 
AIT five other Indonesians detained in excess of nine months. 
 He complained that if these men are criminals, they should 
be charged, convicted, and placed in jail.  The NIA does not 
have the budget or appropriate facilities for long-term 
detention, he added, and the Justice Ministry should not be 
permitted to shift the burden of prisoner care from the 
criminal justice system to the NIA.  What is worse, an HWC 
nun added, is that if these Indonesians are ultimately tried 
and convicted of immigration or other violations, under 
Taiwan law they will not receive credit for the time already 
served in detention.  AIT intends to raise these cases with 
the Taipei High Court Prosecutors Office. 
 
¶8.  Comment:  Some trafficking victims probably do end up at 
Sanhsia, but, because detention center officials do not see 
themselves as charged with detecting victims, this error is 
likely to go uncorrected.  In rare cases where trafficking 
victims are identified at Sanhsia, there is no procedure in 
place for Sanhsia officials to directly contact the 
prosecutor in charge of the case, causing weeks or months to 
go by before victims are relocated to shelters.  The current 
detention process is often unfair to illegal immigrants too, 
since there is no limit on how long detainees can be held 
before trial or deportation, and no credit is given for time 
served in detention.  AIT will continue to address these and 
other concerns with Taiwan's NIA and Justice Ministry.  End 
Comment. 
YOUNG