The story was created in the partnership of the Pulitzer Center.
Taichung City, Taiwan – Bernard holds a low profile.
While heading towards Taiwan’s road, the 45 -year -old Philipino provincial workers do the doses, and often check his face masks that his appearance has been hidden.
To hide his pronunciation, he often speaks of a nearby whisper.
Often, he denies invitations from his fellow countrymen, he is afraid that the “Jews” of them will inform him of the authorities.
Appointed one of Taiwan’s electronics factories, Bernard 2 legally came to the island in 2016.
But since June 2024, they have been in the growing population of Taiwan. He blames his broker, a private employment agent that is generally appointed migrants for his current situation.
Bernard’s broker tried to confiscate his passport, after which he said, he tried to resign and tried to pay the dissection from his owner.
He refused both times, he said, there was a fight between them.
“They (brokers) only talk to you when they collect payments or when they want to deceive you,” Bernard, who asked to use a nickname for replicas, told Al Jazir.
The brokers in Taiwan cut their customers’ wages and have significant impact on their circumstances and the potential for jobs, which causes their relationship to oppress.
When Bernard’s contract was over in 2, he said that his broker made him black on other owners.
He was frustrated to support his daughter’s education in the Philippines, Bernard removed his broker and decided to cross his visa for a strange construction.
Nowadays he said, “Cage in the cage in”.
Publicly, Bernard will not even speak the word “undocumented” in any language, only he warns with his hands that he escaped.
Taiwan’s undocumented workforce is growing rapidly.
According to the Ministry of Labor, the number of immigrants on the island has doubled this in January till 90.2.
Despite the image of Taiwan as a rare liberal democracy in this region, the number of southern Asian migrant workers has increased, under the constant threat of deportation and not accessing social services.
In order to facilitate the recruitment of labor, Taiwan institute his broker system in 1992.
Brokers also affect almost every aspect of migrant workers’ lives, where they live, until dinner, their employment agreements and how they enter public services.
A migratory rights lawyer say that this is the level of control that a large number of workers tend to escape their workplace.
According to official statistics that one-third of all the complaints made by the Municipal Corporation to the Ministry of Labor are related to brokers.
As of January 125, Vietnamese scored the largest part of UN 57,69, followed by Indonesian people 1, 363 at and Philipino 5,750.
Catholic priest Joy Tajonra, who runs the Catholic Center with a migratory shelter in the city of Tachaung, said the Taiwan government has ignored the issue.
“System brokers give the power to use the immigrants for the inconvenience of the migrants,” Tajoneer told Al Jazir.
“In the meantime, employers play innocent.”
The broker usually charges the monthly service fee for the migrants $ 50 to $ 60, and also collect the fees for job transfer, hospital insurance, leave and most of the required documents to work in Taiwan.
In some cases, they limit the age for certain jobs.
Tajonerra said that many undocumented workers can make more money without brokers, “But then you lose all social protection and health insurance. They do not want to escape. This is their situation, they can no longer take.”
‘Shameless and foolish’
Taiwan’s Labor Ministry said in a statement that there has been an increase in free immigrants, the statement said.
Various steps have been taken to improve migratory work conditions, including minimum wages, regular inspection of recruitment agencies, introducing new suspension mechanisms for high rate agencies, and encouraging workers-recipients to reduce agency fees.
“Through the pre-orientation of employment for industrial migrant workers and one-stop orientation sessions for domestic caretakers, the ministry’s objective workers’ legal requirements to raise awareness, inform the loss and consequences of lost risk and consequences.” The ministry said.
However, since last year, the Taiwan government has also increased their visas from $ 330 to $ 330 to $ 5,6577.
Lenn Ying-Da Wang, Director of Public Migrant Shelter, served the People’s Association. He called the government’s move to raise the penalty “shameless and stupid.”
“Instead of paying attention to the reason for escaping, they will prevent these people from surrendering,” he told Al Jazir.
Wang said that the lack of protection, especially for children’s maintenance and fisheries, is the main reason for many immigrants to escape in their workplace.
According to Taiwan’s labor standard law, no industry is subject to Taiwan’s monthly minimum wage.
Wang said that migratory people often subtract half the amount from brokers in practice.
“Migrants only want a decent salary,” Wang said. “But in some brokers, there is a non -spoken rule of migrant workers from MIG to seek help from shelters. It is forced to escape.”
Despite the sympathy, Wang is not allowed to take the immigrants absconding from his employer as the director of the state-granting facility as he is subject to deportation.
On the banks of Taipei, there is a Harmony Home on the Nonsccript Road, an NGOs fulfilling young mothers and children undocumented.
Women and children living in the Harmony Home cannot be expelled for humanitarian reasons, but it is not obligatory for the state to fulfill their care or medical needs.
In the Harmony Home, who has taken more than 1,600 children in the last two decades, recently there has been a sharp increase in the door from his door, founder Nikol Yang said.
“Last year we had about 3 new children. We had already received around 4 140 till April this year,” Yang told Al Jazir.
“We also take care of 300 300 others living at home while the mother is working.”
Li-Chuan Leuhuang, a worker expert of the National Chung Cheng University, said that the broker system will be difficult to “quickly”, but the government can improve the observation of the “recruitment process and cost more transparent”.
In Lishes, the mountainous area of Tachaung, hundreds of unknown Southeast Asian people choose peach, pears and cabbage for local landowners. The presence of the escaped migrants, many of which have fled the fishing trollers, they are not only tolerated but also depending on the harvest.
She would love to have permission to work in the fields with proper labor protection, but she believes that it is not easy for the masses to accept.
“The government will have to make more effort for this kind of dialogue,” he told Al Jazir.
Mary, who asked to use the name of the pseudo, said that she was absconding from her job to work illegally in various hill farms after getting less than half of the salary of her job as a child care worker and her broker ignored her complaints.
Sitting next to the cabbage patch, 46 -year -old Mary said she was always concerned about the police in the city.
But she said the rules are different in the Lishes, because the landowners have signed an unwritten agreement with the authorities to abduct the landowners.
“There is no way for the boss to have no connection with the police. When they say they come and not go out, he always knows,” she told Al Jazir.
Nevertheless, there is no guarantee of avoiding abuse in the mountains.
After harvest, employers sometimes block payments and threatens anyone who complains of deportation, Mary said.
“If I complained that the boss is not paying me, I have to inform me. Who will help me?” She said.
