Police in northern Taiwan have arrested 32 suspects and freed 58 victims in a string of human trafficking cases. That came from Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung’s (徐國勇) report to lawmakers on Thursday.
Last week police in northern Taiwan uncovered two facilities used to imprison human trafficking victims. Authorities say victims are often lured through fake job postings on social media platforms like Facebook before being trapped and trafficked.
Hsu says police are making progress in their investigation and prosecution of human smugglers. He says authorities are using third party policing tactics to strengthen notification systems in potential trafficking areas. Third party policing is a method of encouraging social groups like families or businesses to help prevent crime.
National police chief Huang Ming-shao (黃明昭) says authorities are already cooperating with Facebook parent company Meta to take down fraudulent job postings.
These trafficking cases follow a months long effort from authorities to find and repatriate hundreds of Taiwanese human trafficking victims in Cambodia. Those victims were lured to Cambodia after finding similar fake job advertisements on social media.