A police officer in New Taipei is facing possible criminal charges after an incident in which he is allegedly shackled and detained a migrant caregiver for mistakenly her as an undocumented migrant worker.
The outrage came from the facebook post of Huang Tzu-hua, a representative of a domestic caregivers' union based in Taoyuan, the incident began when the caregiver went downstairs to throw out the garbage.
She was approached by a policeman, who shouted at her and demanded to see her alien resident certificate (ARC), Huang said adding "who takes their ID to throw out the trash?"
The police officer handcuffed her to a chair at a nearby 7-Eleven store. He then drove her to Zhongxing Bridge Police Station, where she was placed in leg shackles and interrogated.
After police determined that the caregiver was working in Taiwan legally, they agreed to release her, but made no offer to return her to the place where she had been arrested.
As the woman had just gone to throw out the garbage, she did not have any money on her to take a taxi, and was thus left to find her way home using Google Maps, according to Huang.
In the post, Huang said the woman was distressed not only by her treatment but also about being away for so long from the elderly woman she is responsible for caring for.
Lin Ku-ting, Sanchong Precinct police chief, said he was "furious" upon learning of the incident, and had ordered an investigation. He said the officer in question, surnamed Hsieh, defended his actions to investigators, saying he had approached the woman because she was "looking around" suspiciously and had a "strange expression."
The department concluded, however, that Hsieh's actions were a breach of police conduct, and it has asked the New Taipei City Prosecutors Office to investigate him for possible offenses against personal liberty under the Criminal Code.
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