The Indonesian representative office in Taipei on Thursday said that it is providing about 2,400 masks for Indonesian students and undocumented migrant workers in Taiwan in an effort to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Of that number, 1,500 have been given to the Indonesian Students Association for distribution to students for free, the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office (IETO) in Taipei said.
Another 900 masks are to be placed in three shops in Hsinchu and Taichung cities for supply to undocumented Indonesian workers, also for free, the office said.
This is to help provide some protection to Indonesian workers who do not have a valid National Health Insurance (NHI) card, which is required to buy masks in Taiwan, IETO official Eva Odameng said.
“We are supplying the masks because there are many Indonesian caregivers going in and out of hospitals, and we do not know if their employers are providing them with masks,” Odameng said.
She said the 2,400 masks, which arrived in Taiwan last week, were donated by Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure.
Indonesian Students Association president Adi Kusmayadi said that the masks would be distributed first to new Indonesian students who have not yet qualified to receive NHI cards.
“We are concerned about the coronavirus, especially as we have learned that the latest case is an Indonesian,” said Kusmayadi, a doctoral student at Tunghai University in Taichung. “We want to make sure our students have masks to protect themselves.”
Kusmayadi was referring to the case of an undocumented Indonesian woman, who was hired to care for an elderly man in hospital and was on Wednesday confirmed to have contracted the virus, a few days after the man tested positive.
There are 14,489 Indonesian students and 23,474 undocumented Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan, according to the IETO and National Immigration Agency respectively.
Odameng said the main reasons why some Indonesian migrant workers abscond are problems with their brokers or employers, including high broker fees.
“We would like to establish contact with these undocumented workers and encourage them to go home to their families in Indonesia,” Odameng said. “Their situation in Taiwan has become even more critical, because they do not have National Health Insurance coverage.”
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