Dangdut music and the smell of cooking fill the air at the three-story Shelter Indonesia KDEI Taipei, a temporary home for undocumented migrant workers awaiting deportation, run by the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office (IETO) to Taipei.
The 330.579 square-meter facility is one of six shelters organized by IETO and one of two that accepts absconded workers.
Absconded workers are those who have fled their place of legal employment, Fajar Nuradi, director of the Indonesian Citizens Protection and Social Cultural Department at the IETO, explained to CNA.
Yet at the shelter, where during an average stay of two weeks residents are allowed to cook for themselves and walk freely around the city, migrant workers often find a more tranquil environment than that from which they left behind.
“When I was going through problems with my first employer, I tried to ask my employment agency to help me, but it was without any result,” a 31-year-old resident at the shelter, identified by her initials S.U., told CNA.
S.U. said she had come to Taiwan in 2019 to work as a caretaker for an elderly woman suffering from mental illness who would sometimes bite her. S.U. then fled three months into her employment after the woman’s husband tried to sexually assault her.
As an absconded worker, S.U. managed to find other jobs, such as a domestic helper or on farms, but after recently having a baby she had been asked to return to Indonesia by her family.
Under Taiwan’s Employment Service Act, migrant workers can only legally change jobs if an employer dies, a factory closes down, a fishing boat sinks, or for some other reason that is not the fault of the worker, such as if their employer breaks the law.
Yet even when the law has been broken, dispute resolution is stacked in an employer’s favor. Migrant workers are not permitted to work during legal proceedings and with many already indebted due to brokerage fees, there is little financial choice but to endure.
It is perhaps unsurprising that those such as the shelter’s residents are incentivized to abscond despite the threat of a lifetime ban from working in Taiwan.
Another former caretaker, a 29-year-old identified by her initials F.A., said she came to Taiwan in 2014. F.A. said she had absconded after her employer did not allow her to leave the house and burdened her with excessive work, adding that she had not even been allowed to seek medical treatment when ill.
“I phoned my agency, but the agency could not help me,” she said.”I wish migrant workers were able to freely change employers.”
Those housed at the shelter have no legal status in Taiwan and do not possess valid documentation after absconding from their official place of employment.
Data from the National Immigration Agency (NIA) showed there were a total of 55,805 absconded migrant workers in Taiwan at the end of last year, 29,207 of whom were former caretakers.
Yet many undocumented migrants in Taiwan report better pay, more days off, and more equitable relations with employers.
Lennon Ying-dah Wong (???), director of the department of policies on migrant workers under the Serve the People Association (SPA) in Taoyuan said that, according to testimony from migrant workers, an undocumented caretaker can make over NT$25,000 a month and an undocumented construction worker can make anywhere between NT$1,500 to NT$3,500 a day.
But a 26-year-old former caretaker identified by her initials I.M. said absconding can often lead to new problems.
“Always think twice before absconding because it is not always as good as you think being an overstayer. It’s a hard life,” she said.
A fellow absconded worker introduced I.M. to work at a pig farm where she had to look after hundreds of pigs all by herself. She added that during her time on the run from immigration authorities she had given birth, making it hard to find another job.
The plight of migrant workers such as I.M. made headlines after the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT) organized a rally on Jan. 16.
More than 400 people marched from Taipei Main Station to the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and then to the Ministry of Labor (MOL) to demand that the government abolish Paragraph 4, Article 53 of the Employment Act, which restricts migrant workers from freely changing jobs in Taiwan.
In response, the MOL’s Workforce Development Agency said labor market mobility could place too high a financial burden on employers as well as create manpower shortages in sectors such as long-term care.
Filipino Paul Yang, who has been serving as a case worker at the Hsinchu Catholic Diocese Migrants and Immigrants Service Center for 20 years, helps migrant workers navigate the legal maze of leaving an employer.
“It’s all done on a case-to-case basis,” Yang said. “If the employer is at fault, the government will allow the worker to transfer.”
He said that in 2021, he helped about 180 migrant workers change jobs, most of whom were factory workers who were not being properly compensated for overtime work.
Despite the challenges, Fajar from the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office places importance on running the shelter as it has helped over 300 undocumented Indonesian workers and the bodies of around 60 deceased workers return home.
“Absconding is not as comfortable as one may think, they are very vulnerable to trouble and problems because of not having access to health insurance,” Fajar said, who encouraged Indonesians undergoing problems to first contact the IETO for help.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel