Wed, Feb 09, 2022 page3

• Shelter touts efforts to help migrant workers

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  Dangdut music and the smell of cooking fill the air at the three-story Shelter Indonesia KDEI Taipei, a temporary home run by the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei (IETO) for migrant workers awaiting deportation.

  The 331m2 facility is one of six shelters established by the office and one of two that accepts workers who have “absconded” from their employers.

  “Absconded” workers are those who have fled their place of legal employment, said Fajar Nuradi, director of the Indonesian Citizens Protection and Social Cultural Department at the IETO.

  Yet at the shelter, where during an average stay of two weeks residents are allowed to cook for themselves and walk freely throughout the city, migrant workers often find a more tranquil environment than that which they left behind.

  “When I was going through problems with my first employer, I tried to ask my employment agency to help me, but it was without any result,” a 31-year-old resident at the shelter, identified by her initials “S.U,” told reporters.

  S.U. said she had traveled to Taiwan in 2019 to work as a caregiver for an elderly woman with a mental illness who would sometimes bite her.

  Three months into her employment, S.U. fled after the woman’s husband allegedly tried to sexually assault her.

  As an absconded worker, S.U. found other jobs, such as a domestic helper or on farms, but after recently having a baby she had been asked to return to Indonesia by her family.

  The Employment Service Act (就業服務法) stipulates that migrant workers can only legally change jobs if an employer dies, a factory closes, a fishing boat sinks or for some other reason that is not the fault of the worker, such as if their employer breaks the law.

  Yet even when the law has been broken, dispute resolution is stacked in an employer’s favor.

  Migrant workers are not permitted to work during legal proceedings and with many already indebted due to brokerage fees, there is little financial choice but to endure.

  It is perhaps unsurprising that those such as the shelter’s residents are incentivized to abscond, despite the threat of a lifetime ban from working in Taiwan.

  Another former caregiver, a 29-year-old identified by her initials F.A, said she arrived in Taiwan in 2014.

  F.A. said she had absconded after her employer did not allow her to leave the house and burdened her with excessive work, adding that she had not even been allowed to seek medical treatment when ill.

  “I phoned my agency, but the agency could not help me,” she said. “I wish migrant workers were able to freely change employers.”

  Those housed at the shelter have no legal status in Taiwan and do not possess valid documentation after absconding from their official place of employment.

  There were 55,805 absconded migrant workers in Taiwan at the end of last year, 29,207 of whom were former caregivers, National Immigration Agency data show.

  Yet many undocumented migrants in Taiwan report better pay, more days off and more equitable relations with employers.

  Lennon Wong (汪英達), director of the Serve the People Association’s department of policies on migrant workers in Taoyuan, said that, according to testimony from migrant workers, an undocumented caregiver can make more than NT$25,000 a month and an undocumented construction worker can make NT$1,500 to NT$3,500 a day.

  However, a 26-year-old former caregiver identified by her initials I.M. said that absconding can often lead to new problems.

  “Always think twice before absconding, because it is not always as good as you think being an overstayer. It’s a hard life,” she said.

  A fellow absconded worker introduced I.M. to work at a pig farm where she had to look after hundreds of pigs all by herself.

  During her time on the run from immigration authorities, she had given birth, making it hard to find another job, she said.

  The plight of migrant workers such as I.M. made headlines after the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan organized a rally on Jan. 16.

  More than 400 people marched from Taipei Main Station to the headquarters of the Democratic Progressive Party and then to the Ministry of Labor to demand that the government abolish Paragraph 4, Article 53 of the act, which restricts migrant workers from freely changing jobs in Taiwan.

  In response, the Workforce Development Agency said that labor market mobility could place too high a financial burden on employers as well as create worker shortages in sectors such as long-term care.

  Filipino Paul Yang, who has been serving as a case worker at the Hsinchu Catholic Diocese Migrants and Immigrants Service Center for 20 years, helps migrant workers navigate the legal maze of leaving an employer.

  “It’s all done on a case-to-case basis,” Yang said.

  “If the employer is at fault, the government will allow the worker to transfer,” he said.

  Last year, he helped about 180 migrant workers change jobs, most of whom were factory workers who were not being properly compensated for overtime work, he said.

  Despite the challenges, Fajar places importance on running the shelter, as it has helped more than 300 undocumented Indonesian workers and the bodies of about 60 deceased workers return home.

  “Absconding is not as comfortable as one may think, they are very vulnerable to trouble and problems because of not having access to health insurance,” said Fajar, who encouraged Indonesians undergoing problems to first contact the IETO for help.
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