Migrant worker advocacy groups on Friday urged that rules on recruiting migrant workers and procedures to protect their rights be tightened in the wake of a case in which an Indonesian live-in caregiver was sexually assaulted by her employer.
A loophole in the rules made is possible for the employer, a convicted fugitive, to hire the Indonesian caregiver and abuse her for almost 10 months, Serve the People Association member Hsiao Yi-cai (蕭以采) said at a news conference.
Although the man, a Keelung resident, was convicted of sexually assaulting a Taiwanese woman, he was still able to hire a migrant caregiver for an elderly family member, because he had not been indicted or convicted of sexually assaulting a migrant worker in his employ, Hsiao said.
Photo: CNA
The man had fled after being handed a guilty verdict and jail sentence in the third and final trial of the case, she added.
The association and the other groups said the Ministry of Labor (MOL) and Ministry of the Interior should work together to enhance information sharing to identify and restrict the eligibility of people found guilty of infringing upon the personal freedom of others to hire migrant workers.
That should be the case whether the victim was a migrant worker, Taiwanese or any other nationality, they said.
Under the Employment Service Act (就業服務法), people convicted or indicted for sexual assault, sexual harassment or assault against migrant workers in the two years preceding the date of an application are barred from hiring migrant workers.
The ministry was considering proposing an amendment extending the ban on people convicted of sexual crimes to five years and prohibiting recidivists from hiring migrant workers, MOL Cross-Border Workforce Management Division head Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said.
However, the groups said that the restriction should also apply to people who commit similar acts against Taiwanese.
At the news conference, the Indonesian caregiver said there was no one who required care at the suspect’s home and that she had instead been used as a maid and forced into sexual servitude, adding that she was also not paid during the time she was there.
She said the man hit her with an electric cable and sprayed an unknown medicine on her wounds, causing them to fester.
Although the man did not seize her mobile phone, he kept close tabs on her, limited her outside contact by frequently checking her mobile phone and took her along whenever he had to leave his home, Hsiao said.
The caregiver was finally able to contact the association for help when she was left at home alone in late June due to an illness, she said.
Keelung City’s Department of Social Affairs never visited the caregiver at her workplace to check her work environment, which contravenes the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers (雇主聘僱外國人許可及管理辦法), the non-governmental organizations said.
Any negligent department personnel should be held accountable and punished, they added.
The MOL has launched a program to visit migrants working for employers who were found guilty or accused of sexual assault against migrant workers they previously hired, Su said, adding that they had uncovered two cases requiring attention among more than 100 visits conducted last year.
Migrant caregivers are the most vulnerable to sexual assault among all types of migrant workers due to their insulated working environment, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said.
Of the 1,363 reports of sexual assault against migrant workers filed between 2007 and last year, about 73 percent involved migrant caregivers, Lin said, citing Ministry of Health and Welfare data.
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