Kaohsiung authorities this week said they discovered four unregistered migrant workers who were allegedly confined at a tofu factory in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山).
The workers are two Indonesian women, nicknamed Afan and Alu, a Vietnamese man and a Filipino.
Two suspects were arrested: the factory boss, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and an alleged migrant workers’ broker, a man surnamed Yang (楊), Kaohsiung City Police Chief Chen Chia-chin (陳家欽) said.
Afan told police she signed up to work as a caregiver in Taiwan, but after arriving 14 years ago she was sold by her broker to the factory to work as an undocumented laborer, police said.
Afan said her passport and identification documents were taken to prevent her from escaping and that she worked at the factory from 6am to 9pm every day, without days off or overtime pay, for the past 14 years.
She told police she planned to earn money for her family to improve their livelihood.
However, while she was in Indonesia, she borrowed about NT$350,000 from the brokerage to train as a caregiver, learn basic Chinese-language skills and to pay for her hiring contract.
“Every day we had to work with the machines and we were confined to the second floor of the factory. We were not allowed to leave and never went outside,” she said.
Afan was paid less than NT$19,273 per month and a broker would wire the money to her family in Indonesia.
She said all four migrant workers were reported as missing.
“The broker told us that as long as we paid him a monthly fee, we would earn a monthly wage,” Afan said.
Tsai and Yang allegedly threatened the workers, saying that they had police and political contacts that would punish them if they tried to escape.
Police and Kaohsiung City Government Labor Affairs Bureau inspectors had visited the factory, but needed a search warrant.
The migrant workers were allegedly told to hide during inspections.
Afan said she saved some money and asked her Taiwanese coworkers to buy her a mobile phone in November last year so she could send text messages to her family in Indonesia.
Afan’s family reported her situation to the Economic and Trade Office in Indonesia, who contacted police in Kaohsiung.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS