Taiwanese prosecutors concluded human trafficking investigations involving 3,401 people between 2021 and 2025, including 147 people linked to cases categorized as organ removal, according to Ministry of Justice statistics reported by the Central News Agency (CNA) on Sept. 28.
The figures refer to people whose cases were concluded by prosecutors, rather than 3,401 separate trafficking cases. Likewise, the 147 figure does not represent 147 confirmed victims of completed organ removals, but people involved in trafficking cases classified under the organ-removal category. Thirty-four people were recorded in that category in 2025.
Labor exploitation remains the largest category
The number of people involved in concluded human trafficking investigations exceeded 600 annually from 2022 onward, reaching a five-year high of 957 in 2023 before declining to 802 in 2025, according to the CNA report citing the Ministry of Justice analysis.
Labor exploitation accounted for the largest category, involving 1,914 people over the five-year period, followed by sexual exploitation with 1,281. Sexual exploitation cases showed an upward trend, rising from 168 people in 2021 to 309 in 2025. Labor exploitation, meanwhile, peaked at 678 people in 2023 before falling to 397 in 2025. Organ-removal cases involved 147 people over the five years, with fewer than 70 recorded in any individual year.
Of the 3,401 people whose human trafficking cases were concluded by prosecutors between 2021 and 2025, 41 percent were prosecuted. Looking specifically at defendants who were ultimately convicted of human trafficking offenses during that period, 50.4 percent were between the ages of 18 and 29, while another 27.3 percent were between 30 and 39. The average age of those convicted was 32.
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Taiwan revised its Human Trafficking Prevention Act on June 14, 2023, with the amended law taking effect on Jan. 1, 2024. The National Immigration Agency said the changes expanded protections for victims and strengthened penalties for trafficking offenses. Taiwan’s legal definition of human trafficking explicitly includes the removal of another person’s organs.
Seven indicted in alleged scheme to send victims to mainland China
The organ-removal figures have drawn additional attention following a human trafficking case investigated by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office.
In a Sept. 9 statement, prosecutors said seven defendants allegedly formed a trafficking group that planned to lure people with promises of high-paying work before sending them to mainland China for organ removal.
Investigators said the operation was uncovered after police examined a mobile phone seized in a separate criminal investigation and discovered conversations discussing human trafficking. Prosecutors allege that the group’s organizer planned trafficking routes and locations where victims would be held, while another member was responsible for contacting a buyer in mainland China.
According to prosecutors, three juveniles were recruited to post false employment offers on Facebook and Telegram advertising highly paid work as fraud money collectors or assistants in smuggling operations. Three people responded to the offers and were allegedly taken to a residence in Zhongli District, Taoyuan, where other members of the group were assigned to watch them while arrangements were made to send them overseas.
All three were rescued before leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said. Seven adults were indicted on charges including participation in a criminal organization, attempted human trafficking, attempted fraudulent transportation of people abroad for profit, and attempted organ removal for profit. Prosecutors are seeking seven-year prison sentences. The charges remain allegations unless proven in court.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office warned the public against online advertisements promising unusually high pay and urged people not to become involved in illegal work such as fraud or smuggling, which could expose them to trafficking networks.
Taiwan expands international anti-trafficking cooperation
Taiwan has expanded cooperation with foreign governments as trafficking networks increasingly operate across borders.
The National Immigration Agency’s published list of international agreements shows immigration, border-management or anti-human-trafficking cooperation agreements involving 22 distinct foreign countries, including the United States, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Belgium and Japan. Japan appears twice on the list because Taiwan has signed separate agreements with Tokyo.
Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency said the island has maintained the U.S. State Department’s Tier 1 designation for anti-human-trafficking efforts for 16 consecutive years through 2025. At Taiwan’s 2026 international anti-trafficking conference in August, representatives from 11 countries gathered to discuss forced labor, cross-border exploitation and victim protection. Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior said the goal of anti-trafficking policy is not only to prosecute offenders but to stop exploitation before it occurs.
Eric Frater, then acting deputy director of the American Institute in Taiwan, said at the conference that more than 27 million people worldwide were trapped in forced labor or sex trafficking. According to CNA’s report on the conference, Frater said trafficking is a transnational crime and emphasized continued U.S.-Taiwan cooperation on law enforcement and border security.
Allegations of forced organ harvesting in China
The Taoyuan case concerns an alleged criminal plan to send victims to mainland China for organ removal. The indictment itself does not establish broader allegations concerning China’s transplant system, but those allegations have separately been raised for years by international human rights experts and independent investigators.
In June 2021, a group of U.N. human rights experts said they were “extremely alarmed” by reports of alleged forced organ harvesting targeting detained minorities in China. An official U.N. Special Procedures communication identified allegations involving Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians. The experts said they had received information that some detainees were subjected to blood tests and organ examinations without informed consent and that the results were reportedly stored in databases used for organ allocation.
“Forced organ harvesting in China appears to be targeting specific ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities held in detention,” the experts said in the 2021 OHCHR statement. They called on Beijing to respond to the allegations and allow independent monitoring.
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