The Ministry of Labor has denied reports that Taiwan is to accept a group of Burmese workers by the end of this month, saying the two sides have yet to set a time frame on when to allow workers from the Southeast Asian nation to work in Taiwan.
The Chinese-language United Evening News on Thursday reported that 150 Burmese workers are to arrive in Taiwan at the end of this month. The newspaper cited the head of the ministry’s Workforce Development Agency, Liu Chug-chun (劉佳鈞), as saying that the arrival of the workers would be handled on a special basis to bypass visa problems, as Taiwan and Myanmar do not have formal diplomatic relations.
However, negotiations with Myanmar over the issue are still under way, the ministry said in a statement. As a new government is to take office in the Southeast Asian nation in March, Taiwan would have to confirm the terms of the negotiations with the new administration before a final decision can be made, a Ministry of Labor statement said.
“Therefore, a fixed schedule is yet to be determined on the introduction of Burmese workers,” the statement said.
Taiwan has been seeking to introduce workers from Myanmar and other nations to help ease its labor shortage amid a rapid growth in the number of older people.
A majority of foreign workers come from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
Efforts to source migrant workers from other nations, including Myanmar, were also prompted by a declaration from the Indonesian government earlier this year that it would stop sending migrants to Taiwan unless the Taiwanese government raised wages for its nationals, which had not been raised in many years.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
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