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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Lawmaker urges split of marriage and citizenship
A Taiwanese man, left, and his Chinese spouse yesterday attend a news conference held by Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator Lin Li-chan at the legislature in Taipei, calling on the government to amend the Nationality Act. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
A Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） lawmaker yesterday renewed calls for amendments to immigration laws and for separating marriage from citizenship amid an increased number of foreign spouses of Taiwanese being left stateless after their marriages are deemed to be fake.
KMT Legislator Lin Li-chan （林麗蟬）, an immigrant from Cambodia, made the remarks at a news conference at the legislature, which was also attended by a Chinese woman, surnamed Yang （楊）, who had her Republic of China （ROC） citizenship revoked on the grounds that she and her former husband had been involved in a sham marriage.
Yang and her Taiwanese husband were married in 2003 and have two children, but her husband claimed their marriage was fake in court hearings for a criminal case he was involved in to protect his wife from his mounting debt, Lin said.
The Ministry of the Interior later cited part of the court ruling where the couple declared their union to be a sham as the basis of rescinding Yang’s citizenship, Lin said.
“According to Taiwanese law, aspirant immigrants are required to renounce their original nationality before they can be naturalized … with their new citizenship tied to their marriage,” Lin said.
The laws are in dire need of amendments as they fail to lay out a clear follow-up process for immigrants who lose their citizenship because of failed marriages, which results in an increase in the number of stateless people, she added.
“Our laws do not even factor in these people’s children and other humanitarian aspects,” Lin said, adding that the government does not deserve to call itself a protector of human rights until it addresses the problem.
Following an amendment to the Nationality Act （國籍法） in 2016, a person’s ROC citizenship would not be revoked if more than five years have passed since their naturalization, but the time restriction does not apply to those found by a court to have colluded in a fraudulent marriage.
National Chengchi University associate professor of law Bruce Liao （廖元豪） said regardless of whether a marriage was fraudulent, what the government should consider was whether to continue linking marriage and citizenship.
“Systematically speaking, we should at least wait until immigrants regain their original citizenship before rescinding their ROC citizenship to avoid rendering people stateless,” Liao said.
Department of Household Registration official Chen Tzu-ho （陳子和） said the five-year statute of limitations, coupled with a mandatory panel review prior to citizenship revocation, were incorporated to the act’s latest amendment to protect the rights of foreign spouses.
However, a panel review is not needed if the rescission is based on a court ruling, Chen said, adding that many countries such as the US, Singapore and South Korea have put in place more stringent regulations to tackle fraudulent marriages.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
