Filipino laborers and human-rights groups protested the mistreatment of foreign workers outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, loudly chanting slogans such as "Anti-Trafficking and Anti-Slave System," and demanding that attention be paid to their plight.
"In September, Premier Frank Hsieh (
"There are many such cases and when attention is drawn to them, the foreign labor workers involved are often sent home. `White terror' in factories across Taiwan is a serious matter," she added.
Chen spoke of how some workers at Golden Sun Co were repatriated after protesting to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) about their working conditions on May 21. There was also the case of 18 Filipino laborers, contracted to Formosa plastics, who were repatriated following a strike at the factory on July 14 and 15 in Mailiao Township (
According to Chen, laborers at Golden Sun Co often worked 16-hour shifts amounting to 200 hours a week, which contravenes labor laws specifying that overtime should not exceed 46 hours a month.
"We don't know why our salaries are so small, we work so many hours. We do so many hours overtime. We work from 8am until 12pm," said Carolyn, a Filipino worker at Golden Sun Co.
Rosemary, another Filipino worker at Kohkawa Co Ltd, spoke of how they were often woken up in the middle of the night to work by male supervisors, who were sometimes drunk.
The secretary-general of the Taiwan International Workers' Association, Ku Yu-ling (
"If this isn't human trafficking, then what is?" he said.
Chen expressed that they were protesting in front of the Executive Yuan because they hoped Premier Frank Hsieh would create an inter-departmental team to investigate and monitor human trafficking.
She said that the CLA had failed to respond to their pleas for a change in policy in the hiring of foreign labor for 6 years.
"Realistically, human trafficking involves many departments and not just the CLA," she said
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Joanna Lei (
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS