Premier demands better handling of migrant workers

Staff writer, with CNA

Premier Lin Chuan (林全) at a meeting in Taipei on Thursday asked the Ministry of Labor to improve its management of foreign workers so that there are fewer incidences of migrant workers going missing.

Lin told the ministry to increase the fines handed to recruitment agencies that fail to report missing workers or mistreat migrant workers by proposing an amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法).

Lin also told ministry officials to look into other ways of improving the management of migrant workers.

As of the end of September, 53,561 migrant workers were listed as absent without leave, 31,185 women and 22,376 men, according to statistics released by the National Immigration Agency on Oct. 18.

That represents an increase of 925 on the figure for August, although migrant workers who are found to have left the nation are deducted from the total.

As of the end of September, 609,272 foreigners were employed as construction workers, factory workers, caregivers or in other manual jobs, statistics from the ministry showed.

That means 8.79 percent of migrant workers have gone missing.

Of the missing migrant workers, 26,429 are from Vietnam, 23,669 from Indonesia, 2,561 from the Philippines and 901 from Thailand, the statistics showed.

At the end of January last year, 43,688 migrant workers were listed as missing — the earliest figures available from the agency, with a further 9,873 going missing from January last year to September, which is an average of 494 migrant workers per month