Philippine migrant workers are soon to be allowed to enter Taiwan following high-level discussions with the Ministry of Labor, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said on Wednesday.
The ministry said that the process of ending restrictions was ongoing and that details had yet to be confirmed.
The comments followed a meeting on Tuesday between Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) and MECO Chairman and Resident Representative Wilfredo Fernandez.
At the meeting, Fernandez reiterated his request for “stranded” workers in the Philippines to be allowed to enter Taiwan, a MECO statement said.
Taiwan closed its borders to almost all travelers except for citizens and legal residents on May 19 last year as part of its response to a spike in local COVID-19 cases.
The closure sparked debate in the migrant worker community, as Taiwanese employed on average 700,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asia between 2018 and June last year, ministry data showed.
As of Nov. 24, about 4,000 Philippine workers were waiting to enter Taiwan, Fernandez said.
On Wednesday, in a MECO livestream on Facebook, Philippine Overseas Labor Office Labor Attache Cesar Chavez, Jr said that unless there was another local surge of COVID-19, Taiwan would likely reopen its borders to overseas Philippine workers after the Lunar New Year holiday, when quarantine facilities are expected to have more availability.
However, later that day, Paul Su (蘇裕國), deputy head of the Workforce Development Agency’s Cross-Border Workforce Management Division, said that Taiwan had set COVID-19 protocol requirements for the return of Philippine migrant workers.
The requirements included the accreditation of 50 COVID-19 testing centers in the Philippines, several rounds of negative COVID-19 test results prior to employment in Taiwan and the designation of quarantine facilities, Su added.
Asked about the “imminent end” of entry restrictions, Su said that the process was ongoing and that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines needed to report to the ministry before it could advise the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on the situation.
The CECC had yet to receive the ministry’s report, as it was still working with the Philippines to confirm certain details, Su said.
The ministry had announced that the entry ban on migrant workers from Indonesia was lifted on Nov. 11 and from Thailand on Dec. 30 after the CECC gave its approval on the grounds that the countries were willing to cooperate and adhere to its COVID-19 regulations.
As of the end of November last year, 143,181 Philippine migrant workers were employed in Taiwan — 116,785 employed as factory workers and 26,396 as caregivers, ministry data showed.
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