Taiwan expects to bring in migrant workers from Indonesia to work in agriculture and livestock farming as early as next month, the Ministry of Labor announced on Thursday following a bilateral meeting between the two nations.
The meeting held on Wednesday and Thursday in Bali, Indonesia, ended with eight agreements, including the opening up of the sector to Indonesian migrant workers, the ministry said.
Taiwan has allowed the hiring of migrant workers from Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines in the sector since 2019 as there is a shortage of labor, but the employment of Indonesian workers has been restricted to those already working in Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau
At the bilateral meeting, the labor authorities of the two nations agreed to speed up efforts to put in place systems for the recruitment of migrant workers from Indonesia for the farming sector, said Paul Su (蘇裕國), head of the Cross-Border Workforce Management Division at the Workforce Development Agency.
The ministry hopes to roll out the opening-up policy next month, Su told the Central News Agency.
The hiring of migrant workers in the sector is currently capped at 12,000, doubling the previous limit of 6,000 earlier this year, with a minimum monthly wage of NT$26,400 in line with the law, the ministry said.
The two nations also agreed to simplify application procedures for Indonesian migrant workers, including those who return to their home nation, to apply for intermediate skilled positions with no maximum limitation on work years, based on the Retention of Foreign Intermediate Skilled Workforce Program, the ministry said in a statement.
Among other agreements reached at the meeting were a set of measures designed to address several issues with the brokerage system that expose migrant workers to multiple hidden fees, the statement added.
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