Premier Sean Chen instructed the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and related authorities on July 18 to resolve custody disputes involving children with parents from the Chinese mainland and Vietnam via existing mechanisms for cross-strait and Taiwan-Vietnam mutual legal assistance, respectively.
He also ordered the MOI to draw up guidelines for resolving disputes involving parents from countries or territories that do not have mutual legal assistance treaties with Taiwan and to investigate whether it can identify at the border that a parent is illegally relocating abroad with a child and handle the situation there.
Chen made the order after receiving a report on defending children from international marriages at an Executive Yuan meeting on human rights protection. He said that because cross-strait and cross-border marriages involving Taiwanese citizens are now common, actions need to be taken to address the growing numbers of custody disputes.
The MOI said that breakdowns of cross-border marriages often lead to custody battles for underage children, and sometimes one parent illegally takes children abroad, leaving them disconnected from the other parent. Hence, following up a proposal at the Cabinet's previous meeting on human rights protection, the MOI has invited the Straits Exchange Foundation, the Mainland Affairs Council, the Juvenile and Family Department of the Judicial Yuan, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to map out strategies to resolve cross-border custody disputes.
According to the MOI, the government will use court orders to prevent parents waging custody battles from leaving the country with their children, and if they have already left, the government will use diplomatic negotiation or mutual legal assistance mechanisms to resolve their outstanding custody disputes.