Th eproblem is systemic: as with the Ministry of Labor rulings in favor of companies, not the workers, the practically semilegal human trafficing systme in place lets brokerage firms act as hired thugs who hold the workers in debt. That there are at least 50 thousands “absconded” workers should be a cause for real concern. Yet, when the “runnaway workers” -what a despicable term- are caught and deported, no one asks why.
Michael Thurton made a list of notable workers’ rights abuse cases. The recent Human Rights report also lashes a few. Those are the ones we know. We can list and denounce but as long as the system -which has been in place for decades- stays as it is, this will go on forever.
If only we hadn’t heard this tune before. 35 Indonesian women forced into factory and maid work via false marriages in 2007. 35 Filipinas forced into the sex trade in 2014. 2010 Filipino workers in a glass factory complain of abuse. State Department reports in 2008. There are just so many… last year an extensive report on the rampant slavery in Taiwan’s fishing fleet. BBC in 2014 on same topic. Every year brings the same stories of exploited foreign workers.
But these are just extremes, produced by a brutal work environment with long hours, low salaries, and indifferent government enforcement of the labor laws.
The conditions are just worse for the foreign workers because the bosses can get away with it more easily… plus the racist component.
The report highlights that human trafficking remains a problem. Such abuse has come under the spotlight recently with the most recent case in which four foreign workers were held captive for up to 14 years in Kaohsiung to work in a tofu factory. The factory owners were fined NT$1.2 million (US$38,760) for the violation and the employment broker was fined NT$500,000.
In the department’s “Trafficking in Persons Report 2016,” it notes that “most trafficking victims are migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and to a lesser extent, individuals from China and Cambodia.” There have been reports of Taiwanese operating illegal businesses abroad as a means to attract sex workers to Taiwan as well as to the U.S.
Taiwanese authorities identified 278 victims of human trafficking in 2016 (197 sex trafficking victims and 81 forced labor victims), down for 292 in 2014. The National Immigration Agency (NIA) operated three shelters dedicated to trafficking victims, and the Ministry of Labor subsidized an additional 20 shelters and a 24-hour hotline for victims.
Taiwan, however, meets minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. The nation prosecuted 30 suspected traffickers in 2016, compared with 71 in 2014, and convicted 22 traffickers, compared with 17 in 2014. The report claims that while Taiwan has sought to prosecute more such cases, the legal system treats human trafficking as a lesser crime and doles out more lenient sentences.
Taiwan’s Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act (HTPCA) recommends sentences of up to seven years in prison. “Despite the anti-trafficking law, authorities prosecuted the majority of trafficking cases under other laws, such as the criminal code, and the Children and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act,” according to the report.
While local officials have been accused in some cases of human trafficking, authorities did not report any investigations, prosecutions or convictions of Taiwanese officials complicit in such offenses. In October, Chiayi City Councilman Hong Youren (洪有仁) was accused of running an illegal club called Drunk Beauty (醉美人) in which Thai transsexuals were employed via a broker using allegedly fraudulent documents. Hong was officially charged last month.
The report states that those most vulnerable to exploitation in Taiwan are domestic workers and caregivers because they most often reside with their employers. And brokers often assist in deporting workers who are considered “problematic.” The brokers also use debt bondage as a means to control workers hired abroad.
In July, an Indonesian caregiver was allegedly raped by her employer. The case didn’t come to the public’s attention until after a cell phone video of one sexual assault incident recorded by the victim was released by Indonesian media. That case came after another employer was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting an Indonesian caregiver multiple times.
The report further indicates:
Brokers in Taiwan often assist employers in forcibly deporting “problematic” foreign employees should they complain, enabling the broker to fill the empty positions with new foreign workers and continually use debt bondage to control the work force. Documented and undocumented fishermen on Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels, mostly from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, experience non- or under-payment of wages, long working hours, physical abuse, lack of food, and poor living conditions, which are indicators of trafficking. Women from China and Southeast Asian countries are lured to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment offers for purposes of sex trafficking.
In addition to human trafficking, there were also reported abuses of legal foreign workers. NGOs said that many workers are unwilling to report abuses for fear their contracts will be terminated and they will incur debt. Most reports of exploitation and poor working conditions involved foreign fishing crews on Taiwan-flagged long-haul vessels.
“In May the Kaohsiung Prosecutor’s Office arrested 11 people, including four fishing boat owners…for allegedly confining 81 fishing boat crewmen from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Tanzania and Mozambique….The court released all 11 suspects on bail ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$100,000, and the investigation continued as of November.”
In an effort to eliminate abuses by recruiters, the Ministry of Labor began operating a Foreign Worker Direct Hire Service Center (DHSC) and an online platform to allow employers to hire foreign workers without using a broker. However, “NGOs said that complicated hiring procedures and the online service’s incompatibilities with certain recruitment systems in workers’ countries of origin prevented widespread implementation” of the system, “and they advocated lifting restrictions on foreign workers voluntarily transferring their contracts to different employers.” On November 5, the government also eliminated the stipulation that foreign workers must exit the country every three years between re-employment contracts.
