Taiwan is to loosen its COVID-19 prevention protocols for migrant workers entering the nation, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday after rights groups rallied in Taipei last month to demand that the government overturn what they called discriminatory measures.
From Wednesday next week, incoming migrant workers would still need to reside in accommodation that is one person per bedrooms during their seven-day self-health disease prevention period, but it would not be mandatory for the rooms to have toilets if those staying in the facility clean and disinfect shared bathrooms and toilets after each use.
Current border regulations for migrant workers require them to sleep in one-person bedrooms that have their own toilet during the self-health disease prevention period or stay in a quarantine hotel.
Under the planned eased rules, the address of where newly arrived migrant workers spend their self-health disease prevention period would no longer need to be uploaded to the ministry’s database, and does not need to be approved by the local government, the Workforce Development Agency said.
Furthermore, migrant workers would only need to self-test for COVID-19 after arrival if they have symptoms and test results would not need to be uploaded, it said.
However, as migrant caretakers and domestic helpers are often in contact with elderly people, young children, those with immunodeficiency disorders and others at higher risk from COVID-19 infection, employers are recommended to assist such workers in conducting self-tests before they start work each day during their self-health disease prevention period, it said.
The planned loosening of protocols has been approved because the COVID-19 situation is slowing down and to meet demand for domestic employers, the Workforce Development Agency said.
The announcement came after dozens of migrant workers led by the Migrants’ Empowerment Network in Taiwan and the Domestic Caretakers Union Taoyuan on Feb. 20 protested outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei, urging the government to end complicated border regulations that they said targeted blue-collar migrant workers.
The two groups said that the regulations were discriminatory and did not reflect the contribution made by migrant workers to Taiwan through their hard work.
The regulations have also resulted in problems for some migrant workers, they said.
Ministry data showed that 722,622 migrant workers were in Taiwan as of the end of January.
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