Thousands gather in New Taipei for Indonesian migrant workers' festival

New Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Thousands of Indonesians gathered at the New Taipei City People's Square Sunday for a festival celebrating Indonesian culture and honoring the contributions of migrant workers.

The event kicked off with Indonesian hard rock bands Sider Roses and Jamsatoe Band engaging the crowd with high-octane rock music.

After a break, there was a change of pace as dancers dressed in traditional Indonesian clothing took to the stage.

Several dozen booths offering shirts featuring batik (Indonesian wax resist-dyeing) art, Indonesian food and drinks, free massages and haircuts were set up along the venue's perimeter.

Chen Jui-chia (陳瑞嘉), head of the New Taipei Labor Affairs Department, said there are about 100,000 migrant workers in New Taipei, with Indonesians constituting the largest group -- about 40,000 people.

About 4,000 Indonesian spouses of Taiwanese citizens also live in the city, Chen said.

Chen said that the event, held in collaboration with the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, was the largest of its kind since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He expressed hope that the event would help alleviate the homesickness experienced by Indonesian workers in Taiwan and reassure them that they are welcome in the country.

When asked whether the department would try to get Taiwanese people involved in future events, Chen said Taiwanese participants would be welcome.

He added that the bureau would better promote future events through migrant worker employment agencies by distributing Chinese-language advertisements.

As of Thursday, there were no Chinese-language promotions for the event except for the name of the event shown inconspicuously on an online poster mainly written in Indonesian.

Having Chinese-language advertisements would also make it easier for migrant workers who work on weekends to ask for time off, Chen said.

During his speech, Kadir, an analyst at IETO's Labor Department, called on the crowd to take advantage of the Cabinet's Long-Term Retention of Skilled Foreign Workers Program and to try and obtain permanent residency in Taiwan.

Dwi, a migrant live-in caregiver from Sragen, Indonesia, working in Banqiao attended the event with her husband, Saman, a migrant factory worker from Lampung, Indonesia, who works in Zhongli.

Dwi said it was exciting for her to be able to attend the event, as she only gets one day off a month.

She added that while she often attends cultural or religious gatherings with fellow Indonesian migrant workers, she does not often get to go to a concert featuring a popular Indonesian pop star.

She was referring to Javanese pop singer Denny Caknan, the event's headliner.

By the time Denny took the stage at around 3 p.m., the plaza was packed with people, many of them wearing merchandise bearing the artist's likeness to profess their love.

That enthusiastic reception was rewarded with a series of hits performed by Denny, dubbed by the event's organizers as the Indonesian Jay Chou (周杰倫), sending the crowd into a frenzy.