Sidelights | Part 2 | The Not-So-Ordinary Routine: The Vulnerable Plight of Female Migrant Workers

The 2023 TV series "Port of Lies" swept across Taiwan. In the show, the Indonesian caregiver Lina is borrowed by the lawyer T'ung Pao-chü to do interpretation work and receives good pay. However, in reality, the plight of social welfare migrant workers is not as affluent as portrayed in the series. Apart from the fact that social welfare migrant workers are not protected by the Labor Standards Act, migrant workers lack the right to choose their jobs and cannot freely change jobs by law. Furthermore, due to the unequal power dynamic between employers and employees, migrant workers have nowhere to air their grievances when exploited by their employers.

Number of Foreign Migrant Workers in Taiwan in 2025

In January 2011, the number of foreign migrant workers in Taiwan stood at over 380,000. By January 2025, this number surged to over 810,000—an increase of more than twofold. Among them, social welfare workers account for approximately 26%, and the majority of these social welfare workers are women. As Taiwan is about to enter a super-aged society, foreign labor provides cheap options for the market. However, migrant workers' working environments, wage treatments, and even their right to choose employment are not guaranteed. To date, the number of missing migrant workers in Taiwan has exceeded 90,000, accounting for more than 10% of the total. The working conditions of foreign migrant workers truly deserve attention.

In Debt Before Earning Money: Brokerage Agencies

Did you know? Before coming to Taiwan, migrant workers are required to pay a brokerage fee to human resources agencies, and the amount is quite substantial. According to an investigative report by the independent media outlet The Reporter, the brokerage fee for a Vietnamese migrant worker coming to Taiwan costs NT$200,000. However, how could migrant workers, who come to work due to economic factors, possibly have NT$200,000 to pay the brokerage fee? Consequently, many migrant workers already owe huge debts to banks before they even start working. After coming to Taiwan to work, some employers collude with brokerage agencies to deduct the migrant workers' debts directly, causing the laborers to lose control over the disposal of their wages.

This brokerage fee also makes migrant workers too afraid to resign. Even if employers exploit or physically abuse the workers, migrant workers basically lack any bargaining chips with their employers. This is because losing their job would shatter their dream of coming to Taiwan to supplement their family's income, and how would they repay the loans owed to the bank?

Wages and Working Conditions

Did you know? Unlike industrial migrant workers, social welfare migrant workers are not covered by the Labor Standards Act. Their wages, leave regulations, and working hours are not regulated by the Labor Standards Act.

According to current regulations, standard contracts set the minimum wage at NT$20,000 per month, which is lower than the general minimum wage of NT$28,590. Moreover, because the working environment for social welfare migrant workers is mostly private homes, the working environment is relatively closed, making it difficult for the government to inspect if employers illegally deduct wages. Regarding working hours, due to the nature of their work, social welfare migrant workers are basically on standby at all times. Even though regulations require a minimum rest period of 8 hours per day, with each rest period being at least 4 consecutive hours, the working hours of social welfare migrant workers are still severely squeezed.

In addition, social welfare workers are actually divided into caregivers who look after disabled elderly people and domestic helpers who assist with housework. By law, employers cannot require workers to perform labor outside their contract. However, under current circumstances, caregivers are frequently required to do housework or even help out at the employer's factory. Again, hindered by the difficulty of government inspections and being socially and linguistically disadvantaged in the labor-management relationship, migrant workers find it hard to refuse illegal demands from employers.

Attorney Sung I-hsin shared several case scenarios, including how caregivers cannot enjoy continuous rest periods at all because the elderly person's physical condition requires them to be turned over at regular intervals. In other cases, although the contract stipulates only one employer for the caregiver, family members within the household can actually direct the caregiver to do housework, even though housework is not part of the caregiver's job description by law. Furthermore, some employers subject migrant workers to domestic violence, but because they have already incurred debts for the brokerage fees, resigning would mean not only failing to earn money but also being unable to pay off their debts, making them too afraid to leave the employer's household. These various cases prove that despite institutional regulations, migrant workers often swallow their grievances and accept unreasonable treatment under unequal labor conditions.

Missing Migrant Workers

According to our country's Employment Service Act, foreign workers engaged in work such as family caregiving are not permitted to change employers. Because social welfare migrant workers are not covered by the Labor Standards Act, they lack the right to collective bargaining and striking. Furthermore, as mentioned above, their wages, benefits, and working hours fall far short of those of industrial migrant workers. Unable to endure their working environments, some migrant workers ultimately choose to flee, becoming missing migrant workers.

However, the risks for migrant workers do not stop there. After fleeing their original employers, missing migrant workers often enter the construction or manufacturing sectors to work illegally ("black workers"). Lacking knowledge of these industries, they are highly susceptible to workplace injuries. Even if they are fortunate enough not to get hurt on the job, once apprehended by the National Immigration Agency, their fate is deportation back to their home countries.

Attorney Sung I-hsin shared a case she encountered involving a former social welfare migrant worker who chose to flee because she could no longer endure her original employer's treatment. The worker told the lawyer that she hoped her next job could be in a factory. This not only highlights the exploitation faced by social welfare migrant workers but also proves that migrant workers are willing to take the risk of becoming missing migrant workers in hopes of getting a factory job with higher wages and better benefits.

Another case occurred in a hospital, where a migrant worker received a settlement agreement written in Chinese after being injured. The employer attempted to take advantage of the worker's language barrier to create an information gap, tricking her into signing an unreasonable settlement amount. Fortunately, she happened to run into an interpreter who helped translate the contents of the settlement agreement, saving her from subsequent legal troubles. Language barriers not only affect the ability to negotiate between employers and employees, but when legal disputes arise, migrant workers are frequently placed in a disadvantaged position as a result.

Commission Fees Charged by Local Brokers

Due to language barriers, migrant workers need brokerage agencies in Taiwan to assist with processing visas, insurance, and other matters. By law, the brokerage fees for a three-year period are NT$1,800, NT$1,700, and NT$1,500 per month respectively; however, illegal practices still exist. Attorney Sung I-hsin mentioned a case where the fees paid to the broker accumulated to as high as one million NT dollars after many years in Taiwan—a staggering sum compared to the wages accumulated by the migrant worker each month. According to Ch'en Hsiu-lien, a volunteer for the Taiwan International Workers' Association, prior to the amendments to the Employment Service Act, migrant workers were required to return to their home countries once every three years. Every time they traveled back and forth to Taiwan, it created room for brokerage agencies to collect fees. Ch'en Hsiu-lien estimated that following the legal amendments—when migrant workers were no longer forcibly required to leave Taiwan every three years—the fees no longer collected by brokerage agencies every three years amounted to as much as NT$60 billion.

Labor Exploitation: The Ugandan Students Incident

According to Central News Agency (CNA), around 2019 (the 108th year of the Republic), the then-Dean of Student Affairs surnamed Chai and Director of the Center for Continuing Education surnamed Lan from Chung Chou University of Science and Technology traveled to Uganda to recruit foreign students under the guise of enrollment. However, they falsely claimed that the school would provide scholarships and internship stipends sufficient to cover tuition and living expenses, and even allow them to save money. In reality, not only did the scholarships fall through, but the international students were forced to engage in massive amounts of overtime work to cover their expenses in Taiwan, thereby amounting to labor exploitation.

In 2022 (the 111th year), the independent media outlet The Reporter exposed the truth, and the individuals involved were subsequently prosecuted and convicted under the Human Trafficking Prevention Act. However, labor exploitation actually exists extensively within the broad social welfare employment environment, which appears legal on the surface yet makes it difficult to expose illegal causes.

Attorney Sung I-hsin believes that in ordinary households, some employers withhold migrant workers' identity documents to prevent them from fleeing, which is a clear violation of the prohibition against withholding documents under the Human Trafficking Prevention Act. However, in even more cases, employers leverage vulnerabilities such as the migrant workers' fear of fleeing, language barriers, and debts to achieve labor exploitation through intimidation. This kind of situation frequently falls into a gray area, leaving migrant workers with no recourse even when they suffer exploitation.

References

• Labor Statistics Query Network: Number of Imported Migrant Workers in Taiwan
• Ministry of Economic Affairs: Number of Industrial and Social Welfare Foreign Workers
• CNA / Ugandan Foreign Students Reduced to Student Laborers, Former Deputy Director of Miaoli Labor and Youth Department Sentenced to 7 Years
• Shih-Hsin University Common Form / Foreign Workers Become Slaves, Ch'en Hsiu-lien: Exploitative System Causes the Vulnerable to Prey on Each Other