There were more than 280,000 legal foreign workers in the country as of the end of May, most of whom were working in the manufacturing sector, according to statistics released yesterday by the National Police Administration.
The nation opened its job market to foreign nationals in 1989 to help resolve a shortage of manual laborers. Three years later, the government further opened the door to foreign maids and caregivers.
At the end of May, there were a total of 280,277 legal foreign workers -- 157,201 women and 123,076 men, according to police statistics.
Thailand accounted for the largest share of laborers, with 102,441, followed by Indonesia, with 73,859, the Philippines, with 66,318 and Vietnam, with 37,589.
In terms of occupation, manufacturing technicians made up the backbone of the foreign workforce, accounting for 150,106 people, or 53.56 percent of the total; followed by caregivers with 105,474 people, or 37.64 percent; construction workers with 17,020 people, or 6.07 percent; and maids with 4,627 people, or 1.65 percent.
The tallies further show that manufacturing technicians come mostly from Thailand and the Philippines, while construction workers are mainly Thais and caregivers and maids are mostly Indonesians.
Meanwhile, police authorities managed to seize 2,686 illegal foreign workers between January and May this year. Among them, 2,214 had overstayed their visas and had taken jobs without legal permits, while the remaining 472 had not overstayed their visas but did not have proper work permits.
As of the end of May, 60,619 foreign workers had absconded from their jobs, 50,986 of whom had been arrested and repatriated to their home countries. However, 9,633 of them remained unaccounted for, with Indonesians accounting for 41.1 percent and Vietnamese making up 24.01 percent.
Police officials attributed the absconcions to a combination of factors, including poor working conditions, seeking a higher-paid job or a better working environment, or absconding with the hope of staying in Taiwan after the expiration of their original work contracts.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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