A Vietnamese man who was kidnapped and held for ransom over an alleged drug debt was rescued after his undocumented mother contacted the authorities, the National Immigration Agency's (NIA's) New Taipei subdivision said Sunday.
According to the subdivision, after 20-year-old undocumented migrant worker Ah Song was kidnapped and tortured over an alleged NT$4,000 (US$135) drug debt, Ah Song's 48-year-old mother Ah Hsueh surrendered to the NIA in order to seek help for her son.
The subdivision said Ah Hsueh was accompanied by an expats' rights group when she surrendered herself, and that she had been living in Taiwan legally before going undocumented for the last four years.
According to investigators, Ah Song was abducted by a compatriot named Ah Hai and three other Vietnamese men, who held him captive in different locations in Hsinchu and Tainan after Ah Song failed to pay back money borrowed from Ah Hai.
The abductors physically tortured their captive and sent video recordings of the process to Ah Hsueh with a ransom demand of NT$120,000.
After the abductors forced their captive to sign a NT$450,000 IOU, Ah Hsueh decided to seek help from the NIA, despite risking deportation, the subdivision said.
The subdivision said that in cooperation with Taipei police officers from the Criminal Investigation Division and Hsinchu prosecutors, authorities narrowed the Vietnamese men's last hideout to Hsinchu County's Hukou Township and raided the location in January to rescue Ah Song.
While the four alleged kidnappers have been arrested, both Ah Hsueh and her son will be deported to Vietnam after the case comes to a close, the subdivision said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel