TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Migrant workers will demand the end of the private labor brokerage system at their biennial protest in Taipei on Sunday (Dec. 8).
In order to do away with excessive brokerage fees, labor groups want “G2G,” or government-to-government, recruitment to be generalized. Taiwan employs hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, mostly from Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Foreign laborers and caregivers have been contributing to Taiwan’s economy and social development for 30 years, the organizers of the demonstration told CNA. They added that some brokerages used their monopoly on information to suppress the workers’ rights instead of assisting them, adding that over the past three decades, the government has failed to live up to its responsibilities.
The protesters will begin their march at the headquarters of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party at 1 p.m. and pass by the offices of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Legislative Yuan before stopping in front of the Ministry of Labor.
At the headquarters of both parties, they will hand over a translated volume of foreign workers' accounts about the brokerages in order to bring the issue to the attention of Taiwan's presidential candidates, CNA reported.