The number of migrant workers in Taiwan reached 706,060 in April, with more than 90 percent of them from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) data showed on Saturday.
More than 271,000, or 38.4 percent of migrant workers, were from Indonesia followed by Vietnamese (221,000, 31.4 percent) and Filipinos (154,000, 21.8 percent), the data showed.
Total migrant workers exceeded 700,000 for the first time in October last year, when there were 703,162.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
The data showed that 259,144, or 36.7 percent, worked in domestic care and services, while 446,916, or 63.3 percent, worked in manufacturing, construction, agriculture and other roles.
Most migrant workers in the manufacturing, agricultural and construction sectors were in Taoyuan — more than 91,000 — while Taichung had 78,000 and New Taipei City 56,000, the data showed.
Taipei had the highest number working as carers or doing similar work with 44,000, while New Taipei City had 43,000.
Migrant workers reported as missing or working at jobs other than what they were legally contracted to do totaled 51,982, or 7.4 percent, National Immigration Agency data showed.
In related news, police in Taichung yesterday detained 10 people at the ASEAN Square shopping mall in Central District (中區) near the Taichung Railway Station.
Seven Thais — five men and two women — one Indonesian woman and two Vietnamese men were questioned about their employment and visa status, police said.
Control Yuan members last year said that officials from the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of Health and Welfare should be held accountable for a lack of long-term planning and negligent supervision amid a surge in hiring of foreign workers without proper documentation.
“Reports of missing migrant workers have increased each year, creating public security concerns,” the Control Yuan said in a report.
“The percentage of migrant workers convicted of criminal activity has also risen, especially for assault, endangering public safety, narcotics activities, illegal logging and poaching,” the report said.
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
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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