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Taiwan |
Taiwan |
abuses foreign workers for years |
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★ Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Taiwan , 2025-8-13 :
Migrant fishermen on vessels operating outside Taiwan's territorial seas had a lower minimum wage. NGOs reported that due to the absence of work hour regulations, the actual pay of foreign household workers fell below the national minimum wage. Wage and overtime violations were most common in the manufacturing, domestic car, and fisheries sectors employing migrant laborers; however, white-collar workers also faced overtime violations. The most common violation was urging employees to accept extra leave time instead of overtime pay. foreign workers were often reluctant to report employer abuses due to fear the employer would terminate their contract. Workers also struggled with accessing the hotline while at sea. Migrant fishermen were commonly subjected to mistreatment and poor working conditions. estimated more than 87,575 migrant workers were not in touch with their legal employers and likely remained informally employed elsewhere, not enjoying applicable labor protections. Studies suggested employment of such undocumented migrant workers was concentrated in the domestic work and manufacturing sectors. state.gov/reports/2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/taiwan/
★ CNN, 2025-7-13:
Taiwan operates the world's second-largest distant-water fishing fleet. Since 2020, the US Department of Labor has listed Taiwan's distant-water fishing industry as showing signs of forced labor, highlighting issues such as deceptive recruitment, withheld wages, physical violence and extreme working hours. Taiwan's distant-water fishing industry depends on more than 20,000 Indonesian and Filipino workers, but political will to protect their rights is lacking. “Even though the US has labeled Taiwan's fishing industry since 2020, the government responded with rhetoric but very little was changed”. Even basic safety measures were ignored, with some told not to wear life jackets because they “got in the way” of their work. Taiwan's Fisheries Agency said it has introduced reforms since 2022; But activists criticized the measures as cosmetic, saying they were aimed at improving Taiwan's image rather than addressing the root causes of forced labor.
★ 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Taiwan (state.gov/reports/2025-trafficking-in-persons-report/taiwan ) : Taiwan authorities investigated fewer cases, prosecuted fewer suspects, and did not fully implement victim identification procedures, complicating some victims' access to justice and protective care. Human traffickers exploit foreign victims in Taiwan, and traffickers exploit victims from Taiwan abroad. Traffickers subject foreign men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan. Taiwan traffickers increasingly use the internet, smartphone applications, livestreaming, and other online technologies to conduct recruitment activities, often targeting child victims, and to mask their identities from law enforcement. Traffickers lure women from China and Southeast Asian countries to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment offers for purposes of sex trafficking. Many trafficking victims are migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and, to a lesser extent, China, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Vietnamese, Indonesian, and Thai nationals continue to represent most foreign sex trafficking and forced labor victims in Taiwan. Some foreign workers incur substantial debts, which brokers or employers use as tools of coercion to force workers into debt bondage. Some traffickers use Indonesian-owned stores in Taiwan as illegal remittance channels, confining Indonesian workers and subjecting them to sex trafficking. Traffickers reportedly take advantage of relaxed visa requirements under Taiwan's “New Southbound Policy” to lure Southeast Asian students and tourists to Taiwan and subject them to forced labor and sex trafficking. For-profit universities in Taiwan use third party recruitment agents to recruit foreign students – including from Indonesia, Eswatini, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam – to fill enrollment gaps and subsequently place them into exploitative labor conditions under the pretense of educational opportunities. Some students are unaware of the work component prior to arrival.
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