TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Allegations the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) was slow to respond to save a victim of human trafficking in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are inaccurate, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said Saturday (Aug. 20).

Hundreds of Taiwanese were lured overseas, mostly to Cambodia, with offers of high-paying jobs, but they ended up as captives of fraud rings. This forced them to conduct scams targeting Chinese-speaking people.

A Taiwanese YouTube personality known as “Bump” alleged the MOFA representative office in Dubai had stalled and delayed efforts to help a Taiwanese man named Lin (林) escape a group of scammers in the UAE state.

Wu told reporters Saturday the office received the request for assistance Dec. 26 last year. Lin returned to Taiwan in January, showing there had been no delay, CNA reported.

People should be blaming the fraud rings that lured innocent people overseas instead of rank-and-file civil servants who tried to help the victims return home, Wu said. Since January 2021, 161 Taiwanese requested assistance to leave Dubai, including 62 who applied for and received new passports.