Negotiations with Myanmar on introducing Burmese nationals as agricultural and industrial workers could be finalized within two months, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also seen as potential new sources of labor to mitigate an expected shortfall of migrant workers, Workforce Development Agency director Liu Chia-chun (劉佳鈞) said.
Liu’s remarks came in response to Indonesia’s decision last month to gradually bar would-be household caretakers from working in Taiwan beginning in 2017.
The ministry plans to soon introduce between 100 and 200 Burmese workers “on a trial basis” as soon as late next month or early May, Liu said, adding that the ministry would consider increasing the number if initial attempts are successful.
While the initial plans would focus on manufacturing and agricultural workers, introducing household caregivers from Myanmar would also be a likely option in the near future, Liu said.
Liu said he was confident about introducing more Burmese workers, as Burmese share “a similar religion” and lifestyle with Taiwanese.
With a decade-long ban on Vietnamese household caretakers set to end soon, they are likely to fill the immediate gap left by Indonesian caretakers in the short run, ministry officials said.
Migrant rights activist Chen Su-hsiang (陳素香), the president of the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, asked whether the government was ready to accommodate migrant workers from Myanmar.
A large number of translators fluent in Burmese would be required, Chen said, as local labor departments around the nation only provide consulting services for migrant workers in four languages: Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia.
The ministry would also need to translate legal documents and labor regulations into Burmese to fully protect the rights of migrant workers from Myanmar, she added.
“I think the Ministry of Labor is exchanging blows with the Indonesian government,” Chen said.
“It is deeply regretful that when Indonesia demands that Indonesian caretakers be covered under minimum wage regulations, our ministry responds by searching for slave labor from another nation,” she added.
Last year, the Council of Agriculture proposed plans to introduce migrant workers to mitigate labor shortages in several agricultural sectors, including animal husbandry, livestock butchery, mushroom growing and the tea industry.
Foreign blue-collar workers are currently limited to employment as household caregivers and industrial and maritime workers, while plans to introduce foreign farm labor have drawn criticism from both labor amd farming rights groups.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS