Several organisations representing migrant workers in Taiwan petitioned the Ministry of Labour on Monday to end the country’s ‘exploitative’ labour broker system and replace it with a system solely based on direct hiring between governments, reports Focus Taiwan. The groups, including the Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA), the Catholic Hsinchu Diocese Migrant Worker Service Centre and Caritas Taiwan, made the demands during a rally outside Ministry of Labour headquarters in Taipei.

At the demonstration, TIWA noted that even before coming to Taiwan, migrant workers have to pay a fee of TWD 80,000 (approximately USD 2,506) to TWD 200,000 (approximately USD 6,266) to an employment broker in their home country. TIWA said after arriving in Taiwan, the workers must continue paying ‘service fees’ of up to TWD 60,000 (approximately USD 1,879) over the course of a three-year contract, even if no actual services are provided.

The groups said that although brokers in Taiwan had lost business after 2016, when the government repealed a rule requiring migrant workers to leave and re-enter the country at the end of a three-year contract, they have since found new ways to make profits. Because many government-run employment centres do not offer help in foreign languages, migrant workers frequently have no choice but to pay brokers illegally inflated fees of TWD 20,000-TWD 90,000 (USD 626 to USD 2,819) for job-matching services, the groups said. The Labour Ministry said Taiwan's current system offers employers a range of ways to bring migrant workers to Taiwan, including through the use of its ‘Direct Employment Joint Service Centres’ or by engaging a broker.