The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday said that it would consider revising a proposed amendment to the Railway Act (鐵路法) after lawmakers said the amendment seems designed to punish foreign workers who use train stations as meeting points.
The amendment, which was submitted to the legislature two years ago, was reviewed by lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee on Wednesday.
The amendment says that people preventing other passengers in railway stations from passing through or using station entrances, exits, ticket gates, ticket vending machines, escalators or other facilities and who ignore requests to leave could be fined NT$1,500 to NT$7,500.
Lawmakers said the amendment was targeted at foreign workers.
“The clause was obviously stipulated after workers from Indonesia gathered in the lobby of the Taipei Railway Station last year in celebration of Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking a fast observed by Muslims,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. “It restricts people’s freedom to gather. I strongly oppose this amendment.”
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Frank Fan (范植谷) said that the amendment was given to the legislature two years ago, when massive gatherings of foreign workers at railway stations was not a problem. He added that the penalties were set by referencing Article 50 of the Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法).
“We will not ban workers from meeting at train stations to celebrate religious holidays. Rather, we will work with the Ministry of Labor and the Taiwan International Workers’ Association to help organize the events,” Fan said.
Fan said that MOTC officials are considering changes to the amendment that will allow some flexibility in the enforcement of the act.
The Taiwan International Workers’ Association yesterday condemned the proposed amendment.
“Whatever the officials say their intention is behind the amendment, it is obvious who the targets are, because there are only certain groups of people who linger in or around a train station: foreign workers on Sundays and homeless or young people on weekdays,” Chen Hsiu-lien (陳秀蓮), a policy researcher for the group, told the Taipei Times by telephone.
She added that public places are for the public to freely gather or move around and they are especially important for people who lack resources, such as foreign workers.
“Taiwan has allowed foreign workers since 1992. Over the past 22 years, policymakers seem not to have realized that they have a life besides work and since most of them either stay with their employers or live in dormitories, where else can they go on their days off?” Chen said. “If you do not allow them to gather in train stations, they will have to gather in parks.”
“Maybe then people will say there are too many foreign workers in the parks and there will be more legislation,” Chen said.
Chen said that she has been personally invited to gatherings of foreign workers on Sunday afternoons in parks in Taipei, but on several occasions nearby residents called the police, saying that the foreign workers were too noisy and bothersome.
“But it is a park and it is Sunday afternoon,” Chen said.
“I can’t understand why people think it is okay for stores and restaurants to take up public space, but not foreign workers,” she said. “It’s discrimination.”
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