The legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) that extends the total duration of stay for foreign caregivers from 12 years to 14 years.
The legislature passed other amendments to the act as well, including the addition of a clause that requires employers who are hiring foreign caregivers and nurses for the first time to attend lectures. Another amendment exempts employers from low-income households from paying “employment security fees” that are collected “for purposes of helping nationals find employment, enhancing labor welfare, and handling the employment and administration of foreign workers.”
The total duration of stay allowed for migrant workers had been extended in 2012 from nine to 12 years, and has now been further extended to 14 years for foreign workers in certain industries, who meet certain requirements.
According to the amendment, the change only applies to those employed in “marine fishing or netting work; household assistance and nursing work; and work designated by the central competent authority in response to national major construction projects or economic or social development needs.”
The workers will also have to be trained and possess special skills to be covered by the amendment.
The clause that requires migrant workers to leave the country and re-enter after their three-year permit has expired — even if the employer has applied for an extension of the employment — was left untouched. The clause has been severely criticized by some social groups as exploitative and benefiting only labor brokers.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) expressed regret over the unchanged clause, saying that it is “inhumane,” “inappropriate” and only benefits brokers.
She also complained about the lack of a discussion on establishing a mechanism to keep blue-collar workers in the country.
KMT Legislator Yang Yu-hsin (楊玉欣) said that the government should continue its efforts to deliberate and put forward a well-planned and longstanding policy on immigration and other related measures.
“It is a pity that these well-trained caregivers have to leave after 12 years of working in Taiwan,” Yang said.
If they could not be further employed or allowed to stay in the country, “Taiwan would simply become a human resource training center for the world,” she said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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