Foreign workers are not criminals: groups

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Civic groups and members of the legislature yesterday condemned the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) for their alleged abuses of foreign workers’ rights. "How can we ask the international community to care about Taiwan if we cannot give proper attention to foreign workers’ educational and labor rights," said Joanna Lei, a legislator from the opposition Kuomintang caucus. "We should ask why they ran off instead of treating them like criminals."

Lei then turned to Chen Ehr, an absconded Vietnamese worker, who said in her own words, the ordeal she has been living in since she arrived in Taiwan in 2003.

Chen said that she was first hired to take care of an elderly woman but instead was asked to work on other duties from 4:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., without being allowed to go out or talk to strangers.

Yet, CLA’s regulations were clear. Chen was not allowed to change work unless she could prove that her employer did not treat her right. So, she eventually decided to run away, and tried to live of petty jobs for a while.

Then, two years ago, Chen had an accident. She was unconscious when she arrived at the hospital, and nobody could sign the documents for her surgery. Moreover, she had also lost her health insurance coverage and lived in constant fear that police would arrest and deport her.

Chen then claimed that unless somebody — with a Taiwan ID — acted as a guarantee and signed the documents for surgery, the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) refused to give her medical treatment.

That person was Mr. Hsu. He barely knew Chen at that time but thought he had to help.

However, what Hsu did not know, is that because Chen was an illegal worker with no health coverage, the hospital would turn to him to repay the medical bill of NT$360,000.

Hsu has since being tried with Chen for not repaying the hospital.

"Mr. Hsu saved my live, leave him alone," asked Chen to the NTUH, while crying.

"We never asked anybody to sign as a guarantee before Chen could receive medical treatment," said the officials from the NTUH also present during the event. "Besides, she received financial help from our social services during her hospitalization, but did not reply our phone calls after she had left the NTUH."

The NTUH then offered Chen to repay the institution by monthly payment. Chen, however, said she could not accept this because she is not allowed to work, and will probably be deported immediately after her trial.

Both parties will meet again in court next Monday.

According to data from the CLA, more than 352,000 foreign laborers currently work in Taiwan’s factories and construction projects. Most female laborers work and live with families as care-givers for elderly and sick people.

At the same time, about 24,000 foreign workers have left their official jobs and are currently working of petty jobs without any health coverage.

However, civic groups said that the government uses the wrong policies to solve this issue. For example, they claimed that a NT$2,000 reward has been allocated to police officers to encourage them of catching illegal workers. The NIA considers illegal workers like criminals instead of trying to understand why they had left their regular job, they said.

Saturday, September 15, 2007 By Dimitri Bruyas, Special to The China Post

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