Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Chairwoman Chen Chu (
Chen, along with the director-general of the Employment and Vocational Training Administration, Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), will examine changes made by the Indonesian government since Taiwan put a ban on workers from that country.
"Since the ban was placed on Indonesian migrant workers on Aug. 1, 2002, Taiwan had been requesting the Indonesian government make improvements regarding labor conditions but had received no proper response," said Hsu Li-ming (
"We have been blocking the importation of Indonesia migrant workers for about for the past few months. This time, Indonesia showed a positive response in co-operating with the CLA," Hsu said.
According to Hsu, the Indonesian government indicated that it had made significant improvements regarding the problems that led to Taiwan's embargo on Indonesian workers, such as the high abscondence rate and the high brokerage fees requested by the Indonesian government.
A Chinese-language newspaper said Chen's delegation would be meeting with the head of Indonesia's labor department.
"This trip is simply to take a look at the results of attempted improvements and discuss issues regarding Indonesian workers in Taiwan," Hsu said.
"As to the question of whether the ban on labor imports will be lifted, it requires further observation," Hsu said.
Hsu said there are as many as 60,000 Indonesians working in Taiwan, and their employment outlook remains bleak.
"These workers and their employers are concerned about the workers' future in Taiwan; therefore, it is critical that a bilateral discussion settle issues concerning these people," Hsu said.
As long as the ban continues, the Indonesian workers in Taiwan are not allowed to renew their contracts and may face deportation once their three-year contracts expire.
Of the 5,089 foreign workers who absconded from Taiwan, 2,804 of them were from Indonesia. Some 3.2 percent of Indonesians absconded, compared with 1.22 percent of workers from the Philippines.
According to Hsu, the Indonesian government has requested that Taiwanese brokerage agencies keep NT$3,000 from each Indonesian worker's salary during their first year of employment in Taiwan.
"This request goes against the principle of our labor law as it would be like extortion. Therefore, our government could not agree with this request," Hsu said.
Hsu said keeping the number of foreign migrant workers low and having a diversity of them have been the goals of the CLA.
"With the introduction of Mongolian workers, the CLA hopes to have a greater diversity of foreign workers, as well as to gain stronger bargaining power with other governments regarding the issue of foreign workers in Taiwan," Hsu said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the