Taiwan should overhaul recruitment practices for foreign workers
The Taiwanese authorities should abolish all monthly service fees for foreign workers and implement a series of other reforms in order to significantly improve conditions for foreign workers in the country, FairSquare said today...
FairSquare also recommended that the [Taiwan] authorities immediately bring domestic workers and caregivers under the protection of labour law, and that they bring the country’s distant water fishing sector under the regulatory authority of the Ministry of Labour and grant them the same protections as other foreign workers. The report commended Taiwan’s efforts in a range of areas, including its impressive legal and regulatory framework, its provision of grievance mechanisms to foreign workers, and noted some positive developments on job mobility despite legal restrictions that continue to tie workers to their employers.
Taiwan has the capacity and the know-how to ensure that workers brought into the country are recruited ethically and treated fairly on arrival. That so many foreign workers continue to fall through the cracks and into exploitation and abuse should be of serious concern to a progressive rights-respecting state that could be a leader on this critical issue.Nicholas McGeehan, FairSquare co-director