Awakened at dawn with violent shakes, Maria -- an alias -- was told by two thugs that she had to pack up her belongings at once and leave the household she had worked for. Maria was forced to get into a car, driven to the airport, and put on a plane that sent her back to the Philippines.
Maria did not know what had happened, and did not understand why she had been sent back. Maria wondered if her mistake had been that she had just had a birthday party with her friends at the Rerum Novarum Center on a Sunday, after she went to her church service.
As soon as Wong Ying-dah (
"The truth was uncovered only after I called the Taipei City Government's Bureau of Labor Affairs," Wong recalled.
"Migrant workers in Taiwan are not protected by Taiwan's laws," Wong said. "Employers or brokers can send them back without any reason. And those migrant workers oftentimes can do nothing about it."
Maria's employers finally admitted that they had asked the labor agent to send Maria back to the Philippines, saying that she was inexperienced in taking care of babies and they no longer wanted to employ her, Wong said.
Wong said that the most fundamental problem behind the riot launched by Thai workers in Kaohsiung and the inhumane treatment that migrant workers encounter is that these people are excluded from the nation's Basic Labor Law (
About 300,000 legal migrant workers -- and not including an estimated 300,000 illegal migrant workers -- have no labor rights. Therefore, when migrant workers undergo unreasonable treatment at the hands of their employers -- such as salaries being cut, pay getting docked, getting fined for tardiness, having to work overtime without pay or having holidays canceled -- few of them are able to contest the injustice.
Although the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has a counseling hotline for foreign laborers, most of the time they can only give simple legal directions. But ironically, the law is the least likely means that the laborers can use, Wong said.
"These channels are not as convenient or easily available as you would imagine," he said.
According to Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲), Taiwan International Workers' Association secretary-general, foreign laborers in Taiwan are divided into four groups: domestic helpers, caregivers, factory workers and fishing industry workers. Currently, the government has frozen the quota for domestic helpers; therefore, most domestic helpers working in Taiwan enter the country under the name of "caregivers" -- people whose job is to take care of patients, the elderly or invalids.
"Many female workers thought that they would be taking care of patients, but later they found they were supposed to be servants -- some of them work overtime like a machine, without a break," Ku said.
Over the years, Ku has repeatedly received shocking cases of maltreatment. For instance, one migrant worker was forced to work for about five households while only being paid by one, one had to endure continual sexual harassment by elderly family members, one was forced to sleep on the balcony -- the list is endless.
"However, with no alternative and forced to repay the placement agency's fee, they choose to continue working -- otherwise they were not only unable to make money, but also go back to their homeland heavily in debt," Ku said.
Earlier this year, one foreign laborer who worked in Taoyuan ran away after not being able to stand the overwork and abuse she had endured. Attempting to escape from the police who were looking for her, she fell out of a building she had been hiding in and died, Ku said.
"In fact, the agencies' regulation that prevents the workers from changing their employer is one of the main reasons foreign laborers are turned into slaves in Taiwan," Ku said. Although the riot in Kaohsiung was a dramatic casethat attracted a lot of attention, there are about 130,000 domestic helpers and caregivers that are working in conditions with no legal protection.
"Therefore, let the law enter these homes. That is the key to protecting these domestic helpers' rights," Ku said, citing the Household Services Act (
The bill is now awaiting passage in the legislature.
"It is regrettable that the CLA kept delaying the government's draft of that law," Ku said. "Anarchy can't exist in the sphere of foreign laborers' affairs, and the government should stop treating the policies of migrant worker affairs as a mere diplomatic policy," Ku added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS