Voicing its "shock" at the Council of Labor Affairs' (CLA) decision to halt the importation of workers from Indonesia, the country's representative office in Taipei yesterday urged the CLA to "sit down and discuss the problems with us."
The CLA responded that it would welcome discussions with the Indonesians any time but that it requires them to propose clear solutions to the problems, in its reaction.
"We were shocked by yesterday's announcement," said Supono, vice chairman of the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, speaking at a press conference.
"We are willing to talk to the CLA, and hope that officials from the CLA will talk to us," Supono said.
Kuo Fang-yu (郭芳煜), director-general of the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration, responded immediately for the CLA at a separate press conference.
"We recognize the representative office's genuine desire to solve the problem, and they are welcome to visit us at any time to discuss the matter. But the most important thing is that we receive clear proposals to improve the problems we have raised," he said.
The CLA officially announced a halt to the importation of workers from Indonesia on Wednesday, claiming that the Indonesian government has not made any attempt to solve the problems of the increased rates of its workers' abscondence from Taiwan, and the fact that, unlike the governments of the countries supplying Taiwan's other immigrant workers, it requires employment brokers to retain a bond NT$3,000 per month from the wages of Indonesians, which is payable to the employee at the end of his or her contract.
"We think that both sides should take responsibility for the matter, but not blame to each other. The CLA should have spoken with us first, before it made any unilateral decision that could hurt bilateral relations," Supono added.
"Taiwan is a sovereign nation. Of course, we are entitled to choose any country for importing workers, or halting the imports," said Kuo.
Asked how the representative office plans to solve the problems of high abscondence rates, Supono, however, said that the problems can't be only solved by the Indonesian side.
"The abscondences are happening in Taiwan, and of course, we need the Taiwan side's assistance," Supono said. "No specific proposal can be established until we have talked to the CLA."
Kuo, however, argued that "Taiwan imports workers from five countries. Why can other countries cooperate with us and decrease the absconding rate, but not Indonesia?"
According to statistics from the council, a total of 5,089 foreign workers have absconded from Taiwan since 1989 when the nation began to import labor. Of these, 2,804 were Indonesians who did so last year.
Yeh Mo-li (葉茉莉), a social worker at the Hope Workers' Center (天主教希望職工中心), a Taoyuan-based Catholic organization that has assisted many Indonesian immigrant workers, explained that the NT$3,000 monthly deduction is one of the reasons for the high abscondence rate, while hard work and disputes with employers are other main reasons.
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