Labor-rights groups yesterday urged the government to guarantee access to health entitlements for overseas migrant workers.
During a discussion panel organized by the Alliance for Human Rights Legislation for Immigrants and Migrants, civic groups slammed the government for not ensuring migrant workers took advantage of their rights.
"During their short stay in Taiwan, these migrant workers pay for their public health insurance. However, once they begin to suffer from an ailment or are injured, their employers can just send them home. Basically, these migrant workers are just contributing to Taiwan's social resources without enjoying the benefits," said Alison Del Rosario, a representative of the Hope Workers' Center.
Foreign industrial laborers have to pay for national health insurance and labor insurance, while caregivers and domestic helpers pay only for national health insurance.
"Although labor laws bar employers from dismissing employees who fall sick at work, they can readily send the workers home using other excuses. In other words, the insurance policy is rarely honored and workers rarely have their illnesses treated," Del Rosario said.
Another labor-rights group discussed the reasons why foreign migrant workers abandon their jobs.
Sanctions
"Recently, the Council of Labor Affairs has been considering placing sanctions on Vietnamese workers due to a high rate of abandoning jobs. These workers have been called `runaways,' a word which has negative connotations," said Jimmy Chao (趙俊明), a labor-relations specialist at the Rerum Novarum Center.
"These workers are breaching their labor contracts only in that they are not completing their agreed period of service. However, these people are not criminals," he said.
Chao listed the four major reasons that cause migrant workers to leave their jobs: intolerable work conditions or exploitation by employers; improper management practices at employment agencies which lead to duress; employer abuse; and the inability to seek help when experiencing difficulties.
"Another situation these workers face is that they prefer not to visit the doctor should they have physical discomfort because they are afraid of being repatriated if something is diagnosed," Chao said.
The numerous health checkups migrant workers are required to take do not apply to other foreign employees.
"Before the migrant workers arrive in Taiwan, they first have to have a physical examination in their home countries. Once they get here, they are subject to additional checkups. However, professional foreign athletes are exempt from consecutive checkups," said Li Hsiu-li (
Diseases
In response, the government said that Southeast Asian countries were being monitored as potential sources of transmissible diseases.
"The reason why these migrant workers are subject to subsequent checkups is that we are more aware of transmissible diseases that spread from Southeast Asian countries," said Wang Ren-te (
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods