Effective today, all categories of workers arriving from four countries would be required to take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 when ending their 14-day mandatory quarantine, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Current policy requires all foreign domestic workers to stay in centralized quarantine facilities after entering Taiwan, receive a mandatory test upon ending quarantine and perform self-health management for seven days, Chen said.
It also requires all migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines to go through the same procedures, but industrial workers from Thailand and Vietnam are not required to be tested after their mandatory 14-day home quarantine ends, he added.
Photo: CNA
However, that has changed, with Chen announcing that “industrial migrant workers from Thailand and Vietnam will also be required to take a PCR test when ending quarantine, and continue to practice self-health management afterward.”
The government will pay for the tests, but employers or recruitment agencies have to arrange and pay for the workers’ transportation to healthcare facilities.
Most migrant workers in Taiwan come from Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, according to Ministry of Labor data, so all migrant workers from these countries are to be subject to a mandatory PCR test when ending their quarantine.
In related news, a confirmed COVID-19 case reported last week — case No. 688, an Indonesian worker who tested positive after staying at a dormitory during her seven-day self-health management period — has revealed that many recruitment agencies have been outsourcing accommodation for migrant workers under self-health management to medical management companies.
The revelation has sparked concern, as the woman was found to have stayed with 47 other migrant workers in a single-space dormitory with only one shared bathroom during her self-health management period.
The facility was operated by a medical management company.
The ministry and local governments on Monday and Tuesday inspected all 21 medical management firms in Taiwan, Workforce Development Agency Deputy Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said yesterday.
They found only 15 migrant workers accommodated by six medical management companies, nine of whom are staying in single bedrooms, and six in the same room, but with sufficient social distancing, he said.
The dormitories run by 11 of the companies meet the ministry’s standards set in the Foreign Workers’ Living Care Service Plan, but 10 of the companies have flaws, such as their dormitory being too small or failing to provide information on the protection of labor rights to the migrant workers.
The 10 companies have been temporarily banned from accommodating migrant workers until they correct the flaws and pass inspections, he said.
Employers and recruitment agencies are required to report the location where a migrant worker is to spend their self-health management period to the Entry and Departure of the Foreign Labor Airport Care Service Web site when they register quarantine data for arriving migrant workers.
Migrant workers should be assigned to single rooms during self-health management or be given enough space to keep a social distance of at least 1.5m, and they should be required to wear a mask and frequently disinfect their hands if they stay together, he said.
Employers or recruitment agencies that fail to report the self-health management location or file a false report would be fined for contravening the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), Tsai added.
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS