A 42-year-old Vietnamese man who had been barred from entering Taiwan was charged by the Taichung District Court with using a false passport to enter and leave the country eight times between 2006 and 2008.
Duong Minh Quan, who first came to Taiwan as a legal migrant worker in 2001, was later arrested for overstaying and then barred from entering the country, The Liberty Times reported.
Shortly after being deported, he paid a forger who stole the identity of a man named Duong Aoo Toan and made a Vietnamese passport with the man’s stolen personal details, but using the accused’s portrait.
With the forged document, the accused obtained a valid visa from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam.
Records showed that Duong entered and left Taiwan via Taoyuan International Airport in August and September 2006, and via Kaohsiung International Airport in November the same year.
In May and June 2007, he visited Taoyuan again, after which he successfully applied for a residence permit at the office of the National Immigration Agency in Nantou County.
His eight unlawful entries were exposed after he visited Taiwan in April of this year. Upon his attempted departure from the country on April 29, a National Immigration Agency fingerprint scan revealed that two different names were linked to his fingerprint, leading to his arrest and prosecution.