"However, with no alternative and forced to repay the placement agency's fee, they choose to continue working -- otherwise they were not only unable to make money, but also go back to their homeland heavily in debt," Ku said.
Earlier this year, one foreign laborer who worked in Taoyuan ran away after not being able to stand the overwork and abuse she had endured. Attempting to escape from the police who were looking for her, she fell out of a building she had been hiding in and died, Ku said.
"In fact, the agencies' regulation that prevents the workers from changing their employer is one of the main reasons foreign laborers are turned into slaves in Taiwan," Ku said. Although the riot in Kaohsiung was a dramatic casethat attracted a lot of attention, there are about 130,000 domestic helpers and caregivers that are working in conditions with no legal protection.
"Therefore, let the law enter these homes. That is the key to protecting these domestic helpers' rights," Ku said, citing the Household Services Act (
The bill is now awaiting passage in the legislature.
"It is regrettable that the CLA kept delaying the government's draft of that law," Ku said. "Anarchy can't exist in the sphere of foreign laborers' affairs, and the government should stop treating the policies of migrant worker affairs as a mere diplomatic policy," Ku added.
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