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Foreign laborers turn themselves in, labor council says
ASSESSMENT REPORT:
The Council of Labor Affairs said a program to encourage workers who have absconded to turn themselves in is working
CNA
, TAIPEI
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2003, Page 3
More 200 foreign laborers who have absconded from their jobs in Taiwan turned themselves in voluntarily over the past three months, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) said yesterday.
About percent of the foreign laborers who surrendered to police between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30 for absconding were Indonesian nationals, CLA officials said.
The council made the statement after concluding a three-month assessment of why foreign laborers run away from their jobs and whether CLA incentives encouraging these people to turn themselves in voluntarily are working.
CLA Chen Chu (³¯µâ) said in late October that a freeze on admissions for new Indonesian laborers might be lifted by the end of last month if the assessment proved that fewer Indonesian workers already in the country had absconded from their jobs. Chen said that the introduction of Vietnamese laborers might be halted as well if their abscondence rate did not fall during the same three-month period.
The CLA had not made any comment on the issue as of noon yesterday, presumably because figures for last month were not yet available.
According to statistics compiled by the National Police Administration, a total of 890 foreign workers ran away from their jobs in September, 430 of whom are Vietnamese.
As of Oct. 31, nearly 11,200 foreign laborers remain unaccounted for, including 1,953 Filipinos, 4,000 Indonesians, 1,480 Thais and 3,533 Vietnamese, CLA officials said.
Pleased the preliminary results of the assessment, the CLA will likely extend the period allowing more of the absconded foreign laborers to report themselves, the officials said.
The CLA will also talk with domestic police as well as the representative offices of laborer-exporting Southeast Asian countries in a bid to convince them that the repatriation process be shortened and that free air tickets be provided for repatriation, as incentives to persuade more absconded workers to emerge, the officials added.
About legal foreign laborers are working in Taiwan, most of whom work in the manufacturing sector, according to the CLA.
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