Labor activists and rural advocacy groups yesterday slammed the government’s plan to import foreign farm labor, calling the plan “highly irresponsible,” following suggestions by Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) earlier this week.
Chen said that the hiring of foreign farm hands was “inevitable” and proposed to introduce migrant workers to Taiwanese farms on a trial basis starting in January, to address what he called a serious shortage of domestic farm labor.
The Ministry of Labor did not immediately concur with the proposal.
In a statement, ministry officials said the proposal should be “evaluated with caution,” adding that they would discuss the issue with experts and labor organizations in a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Wu Chin-yi (吳勁毅), a post-doctoral research fellow at National Dong Hwa University and member of the rural advocacy group Taiwan Rural Front, questioned the plan, claiming it could “destroy” household agriculture in rural areas.
“It all comes down to who you characterize as the core constituency of Taiwanese agriculture,” Wu said. “If the government’s goal is to aid large agribusinesses, migrant workers might make sense. But if, like us, you see household agriculture as the core, the solution would be different.”
Wu said innovative business models have successfully generated much higher revenues.
Citing examples from his own research, he said that origin certification for agricultural products in Taitung’s Chihshang (池上) and Guanshan (關山) townships has generated profitable results, leading to many local youth returning to their rural hometowns.
Labor activists were also unimpressed with Chen’s proposal, calling on the COA to implement other reforms on the ailing sector instead.
“The government should put more effort into policy reform and provide assistance to the agricultural sector, instead of irresponsibly procuring new sources of cheap labor to exploit,” Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA) researcher Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如) said.
“If the farms suffer from a shortage of domestic labor, they should simply raise their wages,” Wu said, adding that migrant workers often received minimum pay and were more vulnerable to abuse and harsh working conditions.
Betty Chen (陳容柔), also a member of TIWA, said that the seasonal nature of farm labor could mean a propensity toward short-term work.
She said this could mean more brokerage fees and travel expenses for migrant workers.
“We’ve seen many migrant workers in the fishing sector working for multiple fishing ships, which makes the employers less accountable,” Betty Chen said, adding that should the migrant workers work as dispatch workers, their rights would be even more difficult to defend.
The COA had earlier suggested that migrant workers could work for different farms over different seasons as dispatch workers while being officially employed by local farmers’ associations.
Taiwan is home to about 520,000 migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asian nations, currently limited to employment as industrial laborers, marine workers and household caretakers.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard