Holding up signs that read “Say No to Forced Eating of Pork” and shouting slogans such as “Not eating pork is my freedom” and “Religious freedom, basic rights,” dozens of foreign workers yesterday protested their lack of religious freedom in a demonstration in front of the Bureau of Consular Affairs in Taipei.
Led by the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), the protesters hoped to draw attention to social problems following the recent indictment of a Taiwanese employer who forced Indonesian Muslim workers to eat pork.
Chang Wen-ling (張雯琳), wife of Shin Hua Hang Fashion Co’s owner, was recently charged with forcing three Indonesian workers who had been hired as caregivers to eat pork and work long hours in a factory for seven months. The case prompted condemnation from Jakarta, which urged Taiwan to pay attention to foreign workers’ rights.
One of the protesters, Tiwi, an Indonesian Muslim caregiver who has been in Taiwan for more than seven years and worked for three different employers, yesterday said that all of her employers have tried to convince her to eat pork and did not respect her religious practices.
“Whenever we eat together, my boss tells me, ‘Even if you eat pork, your Allah will still love you,’ but I always politely tell my boss: ‘Thank you, boss, but I can’t eat pork,’” she said.
Tiwi and the other workers said their employers wanted them to eat pork so they would have more energy to work, but said they wished their employers and the rest of society would hear their pleas for religious freedom and not pressure them to do things that their religion prohibits.
“Many people in Taiwan don’t eat beef because of religious beliefs. How would you feel if someone forced you to eat beef?” she asked. “When we eat pork, our hearts are filled with guilt.”
Yohana, an Indonesian Muslim caregiver who has worked in Taiwan for eight years, said that in addition to being forced to eat pork, she was ordered to sign a contract that required her to take care of dogs, or be sent back to Indonesia.
For a majority of Muslims, taking care of dogs is against their religious beliefs because dogs are considered unclean.
TIWA chairperson Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲) said the root of the problem lay in the government repeatedly delaying including migrant caregivers under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to protect their basic working rights.
As a result, caregivers are often forced to put up with poor working conditions, such as doing things that are against their religious beliefs or working for long periods of time with no days off or adequate time to rest.
“We need to establish legislation to prevent such cases from happening in the future and to encourage employers and migrant workers to have mutual respect for each other’s cultures,” Ku said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to