Two runaway workers from Indonesia were caught in Chiayi during a police raid early this month after they exposed their whereabouts in a Facebook post made to show off the money they had earned since absconding from their jobs, the Chiayi County Police Bureau said on Monday.
The runaways, one man and one woman, lived in the same village in Indonesia before coming to Taiwan, the bureau’s Minsyong Precinct said in a news release.
The precinct only released transliterated names of the two people — “A Shi” for the man and “Sha Ti” for the woman.
Police said the two applied for work as caregivers in Taiwan in March and June 2014.
Since their arrival, the two communicated with each other daily through the Line app, police said.
Complaining of hard work and low wages, they planned to run away from their contracted work in December 2014 and eventually carried out their plan, police said.
The couple said that after running away, they went to the mountainous Lishan area of central Taiwan, where they took part-time jobs, police said.
On March 10, the couple visited Indonesian compatriots working legally in Chiayi’s Sikou Township (溪口), whom they encouraged to run away, saying that after they had absconded, they had earned more money than before.
As proof, the two posted a photograph on Facebook showing many Taiwanese banknotes spread on a bed in a Chiayi hostel where they were staying, police said.
The day after the post, they were reported by their compatriots as having absconded, leading to the raid that got them arrested.
The two were taken to the immigration authorities to be deported, police said.
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