A coalition of human rights groups yesterday said that the National Immigration Agency starves migrant workers at its temporary detention centers before deporting them, but the agency denied the claim, citing an internal investigation.
A dozen human rights advocates from the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), Taiwan Association for Human Rights and other groups protested outside the agency’s offices on Taipei’s Guangzhou Street.
Since last year, TIWA has received reports from multiple migrant workers held at the temporary detention centers saying that they were charged NT$190 daily for food — NT$50 for breakfast, NT$70 for lunch and NT$70 for dinner — association member Wu Ching-ju (吳靜如) said.
Photo copied by Wang Kuan-jen, Taipei Times
If a detainee did not have enough money, they would not be offered any food, she said.
“It is hard to believe that our government would not even provide food to people whom it has already deprived of freedom,” Wu said.
This was caused by detention center managers being lazy and not wanting to apply for government funding to cover detainees’ food costs, she said.
In some cases, detention center staff bought food for the detainees out of their pockets, Wu added.
“As far as we know, a migrant worker had to drink water for three days after being unable to borrow any money from other detainees,” said Liu Hsiao-ying (劉曉櫻), a member of the Hsinchu Catholic Diocese Migrants and Immigrants Service Center.
While most of the detainees are deported within 15 days, detention periods could be prolonged to up to a month if they do not have a passport or enough money, or if plane tickets are sold out due to an upcoming holiday, she said.
In a news release, the agency denied starving the detainees, saying that those without enough money were given food paid for either through government funds or through donations from staff and restaurants.
The agency asked the 17 temporary detention centers nationwide to report on the claims and did not find any detainees who had been starved, International Affairs and Law Enforcement Division deputy head Chen Yun (陳昀) said.
Foreign workers must pay for their food during their detention, but if they do not have money, the expense is temporarily covered by the government’s employment security fund, she said, citing regulations.
Foreigners waiting for deportation at a temporary center would be transferred to one of the nation’s four detention centers within 72 hours, she said, adding that nearly 100 foreigners are detained every day.
The detention process was prolonged during the Lunar New Year holiday, but no one has been detained for up to a month, Chen said.
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