migrant workers in Taiwan

Ministry of Labor’s Refusal to Abolish Migrant Labor Broker System Illustrates Deference to the Free Market

The latest round of protests against the exploitative migrant labor brokerage system saw hundreds of people demonstrating outside the Indonesian, Filipino, and Vietnamese representative offices in Taipei in early November. Yet the Taiwanese Ministry of Labor responded to the protests by washing its hands of any responsibility for upholding this predatory system of labor brokerage. The Ministry of Labor's deference to the free market is consistent with the government’s goal of treating Southeast Asian migrant workers employed through the guest worker program as cheap and disciplined labor power...

Migrant Fishermen Abuses Continue to Be Covered up Through Collaboration of Taiwanese State and Capital

On September 20th, the training ship Yu Shiun No. 2 departed Ch’ien-chen Harbor in Kaohsiung, carrying an eclectic crew of passengers, including officials with the Fisheries Agency, employees of the Overseas Fisheries Development Council of the Republic of China, and members of the Serve the People Association, the Environmental Justice Foundation, and the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union ...

Nanfang’ao Bridge Collapse Raises Issues of Systematic Discrimination Against Migrant Workers

A section of the Nanfang’ao Bridge in Yilan County collapsed around 9:30 on Tuesday morning, injuring over twenty people and killing six migrant fishermen. Responses to the bridge collapse should call attention to the dehumanizing conditions faced by migrant workers and the situation faced by migrant workers in which situation wherein migrant fishermen are bound to their worksites even when not being paid...

Recent Incidents Point Toward Need for Stronger Protections for Migrant Workers in Taiwan

A number of recent incidents over the past few months point to the need for stronger protections for migrant workers in Taiwan. The first incident involves the death of a migrant worker after a hydrofluoric acid spill in a factory, the second incident involves the death of a migrant worker in a hospital in Nantou under mysterious circumstances, and the third incident involves the sentencing of a police officer involved in the shooting death of a migrant worker in 2017...