TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Labor activists and legislators have said there is a severe lack of oversight when it comes to Taiwan's international migrant labor agreements, as the legislature considers a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enable Indian migrant labor into the country.
Taiwan currently utilizes the labor of around 700,000 migrants – the majority of which are from Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand. Labor shortages have led to increased demand for migrant workers, and Taiwan’s government signed an MOU with India on Feb. 16 to open labor migration from the country.
MENT, a group representing 19 labor activist groups throughout Taiwan, gathered outside Taiwan’s legislature on Friday (March 8) calling for the implementation of a more thorough and public review process of proposed MOUs. Protesters said the process the MOU is going through in the legislature is opaque, and said this will mean continued exploitation of migrants.
“We solemnly protest against the long-term behavior of the Ministry of Labor that has deliberately used MOUs to avoid being reviewed by the public,” MENT said in a press release.
“This is achieved by being opaque, unspecific, and hiding details of the exploitation of migrant workers in subsequent negotiations,” which results in a "vicious cycle" of exploitation of migrant workers, the alliance said.
Lennon Wong (汪英達) of the Serve the People Association (SPA) told Taiwan News the MOU signed between Taiwan and India lacks adequate scrutiny. He added the labor alliance is calling for the MOU to be reviewed by the legislature, instead of simply checked over and passed as it is.
MENT also demanded a “government to government” hiring processes for migrant workers be included in any future MOU. Protesters said this will help to end exploitation of migrant laborers that occurs at the hands of private agencies. Agencies often charge high fees to migrants seeking work – a practice that is illegal under international labor conventions.
Lennon Wong speaks to members and supporters of the Migrant Empowerment Network in Taiwan on Friday. (Taiwan News, Jono Thomson photo)
Amor, a Filipina migrant worker and leader of the Domestic Caretaker Union, said the agency system that has existed for three decades has led to “layers of exploitation” and workers becoming indebted through work. “We take care of your families, contributing to Taiwan’s economy… working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, yet not even receiving the basic minimum wage,” she said.
“When our home countries request Taiwanese governments protect our rights, Taiwan’s government opts to bring in migrant workers from other countries, as if we are not worthy of fair treatment,” she said.
Taiwan’s labor ministry has established a direct hiring platform for migrant laborers, though Hsu Wei-tung (許惟棟) of the Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA) said this is inadequate. Hsu said that if employers want to hire workers already in Taiwan they can use the system, but it is otherwise ineffective.
Hsu also noted that multiple legislators representing the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had also highlighted the poor oversight process for the MOU in the legislature on Wednesday. The KMT’s Chiu Cheng-chun (邱鎮軍) said public reviews of migrant worker agreements had been carried out in the past, and questioned why there was no such process this time.
Meanwhile, the DPP’s Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said that there had not been adequate discussion around the introduction of Indian migrant workers into Taiwan. Liu and fellow DPP legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) questioned if the labor ministry had plans to properly resource the process, and highlighted concerns about communication between Taiwanese agencies and Indian laborers.
The SPA’s Wong lashed the government on this point. He said the labor ministry had noted that it intended to source Indian migrants with good English. “Is it really this simple?”
“The Ministry of Labor often says the Philippines is an English-speaking country, so they only need people who can speak English to provide them with really good service.”
Domestic Caretaker Union leader Amore speaks to members and supporters of the Migrant Empowerment Network in Taiwan on Friday. (Taiwan News, Jono Thomson photo)
“Everyone who was met Filipino migrant workers knows, not every Filipino can use English to adequately communicate,” he said. “In the whole of Taiwan, those providing service from the labor department in Tagalog is at most three people.”
“How can they provide good service to Indian communities? Does the government even know how many languages there are in India? How many people are there in Taiwan who can speak the Indian languages from the places the migrants will be sourced?” Wong said.
Taiwan News put MENT's demands and criticisms of language abilities to the labor ministry, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
The Taiwan-India migrant labor MOU is being discussed as a separate MOU between Taiwan and Indonesia is being negotiated. Seafood Campaign Consultant for the Global Labor Justice International Labor Rights Forum Jonathan Parhusip spoke to Taiwan News from Indonesia, where he is currently accompanying fishing industry union members for the negotiations.
Parhusip said MOU negotiations in Indonesia are “always open,” and said the legislation processes involving international labor MOUs involve consultation with unions or thinktanks: “but that is not the case for Taiwan.”
On March 1, representatives of Indonesian migrant fishers’ unions were invited for a meeting with Taiwan’s fisheries agency and the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office for the first time. Parhusip said during this meeting, representatives of the fishermen discovered negotiations on the MOU had already occurred between the Taiwanese and Indonesian governments.
“The Indonesian government has made it very clear that after they have a draft (of the MOU) they will open public consultations, but I don’t think that will happen in Taiwan,” he said.
