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 (
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
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