Taiwan and the United States have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to exchange and disseminate information to help combat human trafficking, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Friday. NIA Director-General Mo Tien-fu said it is becoming increasingly vital to form international partnerships and work closely with other nations to counter human smuggling and trafficking, as the efforts of any single nation acting on its own are ineffective. The MOU signed with the United States Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) will enable Taiwan and the U.S. to work closely within the confines of the law to jointly battle the cross-border issue of human trafficking, the NIA said. Signing an MOU with Washington has always been a priority for the NIA because the U.S. plays a leading role on such global issues as anti-terrorism, anti-trafficking and battling transnational crime. The MOU was a milestone, the NIA said, because it recognized Taiwans efforts to prevent international human smuggling and trafficking and was the first of its kind signed between the U.S. and an Asia Pacific nation, even though Taiwan and the U.S. do not have official diplomatic ties. The immigration agency said that following the signing of the MOU, it looked forward to further legal cooperation between Taiwan and other nations to jointly combat international human trafficking. The memorandum was signed at the American Institute Taiwans (AIT) Washington headquarters Thursday by Leo Lee, Taiwans deputy representative to the U.S., and Joseph Donovan, managing director of the AIT, which handles U.S. relations with Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties. The U.S. has signed similar memorandums with Canada, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France and the European Union.
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 16:35:01 +0000
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