migrant workers in Taiwan

Attack on High School Student Illustrates Racial Profiling by Taiwanese Police

Brian Hioe
A seventeen-year-old high schooler was attacked by plainclothes Taiwanese police officers in Changhua earlier this month after being mistaken for an undocumented, “runaway” migrant worker. In particular, the student may have been a victim of racial profiling by police, seeing as he is half-Vietnamese. After the incident, the student required seventeen stitches and also suffered bruises on other parts of his body...
EnglishJuly 2023Politics5 min read

Migrant Worker Advocates Demonstrate Attempted Police Arrest in Church

Brian Hioe
Migrant worker groups criticized the actions of the Shulin police in a press conference earlier this week. Namely, police entered the premises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Shulin, New Taipei in search of migrant workers they suspected to be members of a fraud ring. The members of the fraud ring were thought to be in the process of handing off money by police. The incident took place on May 28th...
EnglishJune 2023LaborRaceSocial Movements5 min read

Civil Society Groups Call for Wi-fi for Migrant Fishermen

Brian Hioe
Civil society groups held a press conference in front of the Taipei Fish Market late last month to call for wi-fi access for migrant fishermen. Participant groups included the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Stella Maris Kaohsiung, Global Labor Justice - International Labor Rights Forum, the Humanity Research Consultancy, and Fospi Donggang Pingtung. Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih of the NPP was also present and DPP legislator Hung Sun-han was scheduled to attend but was later unable to make it. According to these groups, this press conference was more than half a year in planning...
EnglishLaborMarch 2023RaceSocial Movements4 min read

Control Yuan Calls for Reform of Migrant Worker System for Agricultural Sector

Brian Hioe
Control Yuan members Wang Mei-yu, Wang Yu-ling, and Upay Radiw Kanasaw held a press conference late last month to call attention to the lack of pathways for migrant workers to work in the agricultural sector. Namely, compounded with the agricultural sector’s shortage of workers, this has resulted in a “symbiotic” relationship between the agricultural sector and migrant workers that have fled their workplace, commonly referred to as “runaway” migrant workers...
EnglishJanuary 2023LaborSocial Movements5 min read

Regulations Requiring Migrant Workers to Have Employers’ Permission to Purchase Electric Bikes Criticized

Brian Hioe
Migrant worker advocates have reacted with anger against new regulations rolled out by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications requiring blue-collar migrant workers to have the consent of their employer in order to purchase electric bicycles. The new regulations began to be implemented on November 30th, with the form that employers need to fill out for their employees to purchase electric bicycles released on November 18th...
December 2022EnglishLaborRaceSocial Movements5 min read