The Garden of Hope Foundation on Friday unveiled a report highlighting problems in the government’s enforcement of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), leading to difficulties faced by migrant workers in Taiwan.
The country ratified ICERD in 1970.
The report was compiled by the foundation and three other non-governmental organizations concerned with protecting the rights of foreign residents in Taiwan and interviewed 77 anonymous migrant workers.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan currently has about 960,000 foreign residents in Taiwan, of which about 80 percent are migrant workers, Kaili Lee (李凱莉), a director at Garden of Hope, told a news conference in Taipei.
Although Taiwan’s government has introduced policies such as the Long-term Retention of Skilled Foreign Workers Program to attract foreign talent, underlying discrimination in society could hamper that goal, she said.
In an overview of the report, Lee said one example of discrimination against migrant workers is the way in which they are often vilified by the media in Taiwan.
From July 1 to 26, the foundation gathered 240 news reports, of which 135 bore headlines showing migrant workers in “a very negative light,” she said.
In addition, the direct employment joint services center established by the Ministry of Labor allows prospective employers to choose on a form the nationality of workers they would like to hire, which is in itself a form of discrimination, Lee said.
Furthermore, there is a lack of interpreters at police stations who speak the native tongue of migrant workers, making it difficult for them to file a police report, she said.
Jasmin Ruas from the Philippines, a director at the Domestic Caretaker Union, said migrant caregivers are often denied the right to take sick or maternal leave.
Employers of migrant caregivers often threaten to fire them when they want to take a leave, Ruas said.
In addition, police in Taiwan tend to randomly stop migrant workers on the street to check their identity documents, but never do so with Caucasians, she added.
Fajar, a member of the Ganas Community — an advocacy group concerned with the betterment of migrant workers’ rights — said the migrant worker brokerage system in Taiwan is “modern-day slavery.”
Under this system, the market is controlled by brokerage firms and workers are treated as merchandise with no say as to which employer they work for, Fajar said.
In addition, the high brokerage fees charged even before finding a job have become a common nightmare for migrant workers, Fajar said.
Meanwhile, the minimum wage for migrant caregivers is lower than that of Taiwanese workers or migrant factory workers, and the Ganas Community will continue to push for fair wages for migrant caregivers, for legislation to protect their labor rights, and the abolition of the brokerage system, Fajar said.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS