A sign at a public hospital toilet that sparked controversy about possible segregation of migrant workers has been removed, the hospital said yesterday.
Klaus Bardenhagen, a German freelance journalist based in Taiwan who runs a Facebook page called taiwanreporter, posted a photograph on his page on Monday of a sign in the Zhongxiao branch of Taipei City Hospital that read in English: “Migrant workers only (foreign Labor only).”
He was shocked by the sign, Bardenhagen said in the post.
Photo: Courtesy of facebook.com/taiwanreporter.
While the Chinese characters on the sign state that the particular toilet was reserved for foreign workers undergoing their mandatory health check-up, he said, he was not sure if hospital authorities were aware that the English translation “[smells] of segregation.”
He also wrote that he thought most of the migrant workers who might use the toilet while having their health check-ups were unlikely to be able to read Chinese.
There have been some Facebook discussion threads responding to the photo, calling the sign ridiculous, discriminatory, even racist, while others said that the signage was designed to let people know that the squat toilet could be used to produce urine and stool samples, as opposed to the sit-down toilet next to it.
Bardenhagen said he did not think the sign was meant to be discriminatory, and that it was “probably just someone being thoughtless,” but “the clumsy English translation however could be perceived as [discriminating.]”
“How about ‘This toilet only for taking stool samples, please keep it free’ or something along those lines?” he wrote.
Some netizens questioned why the sign needed to single out migrant workers, since anyone going to the hospital for a health examination could use the squat toilet if they needed to provide urine or stool samples.
Asked for a response, the hospital said it “absolutely did not mean to discriminate,” and the sign had been posted for seven or eight years.
A hospital official said the signage was meant to help migrant workers identify the toilet and avoid congestion at the toilet facilities.
“It was to help streamline the flow, since many migrant workers have their health checks here. If there was no sign, people who were not undergoing health checks might use the toilet and that would slow the process,” a planning section chief surnamed Lin (林) said.
Migrant workers were welcome to use other toilets in the hospital too, she added.
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