Labor ministry to probe claims migrant workers mobilized at KMT rally

Taipei, April 27 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor (MOL) has said it will conduct a probe with the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to investigate claims that migrant workers were mobilized to attend a rally against the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Saturday.

Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) on Saturday staged a protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei against ongoing recall campaigns targeting 34 of its lawmakers.

In a tit-for-tat move, supporters of the KMT have also initiated recall campaigns, which recently passed the second-stage threshold to set up recall votes against 15 DPP lawmakers.

On Saturday, a video surfaced online, showing what appeared to be foreign nationals at the rally. In the video, a woman can be seen interviewing one "protester" and asking him, in Mandarin, why he decided to join the rally.

The participant did not understand the question, and after another participant translated it into Vietnamese, said, "An older man brought me here."

The two "protesters" were part of a group whose members all wore blue caps sporting the name and slogan of KMT lawmaker Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), who represents Hsinchu City.

Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), an academic in the field of law, shared the video and a photo of a group of people wearing blue caps on Hsinchu City's Nanda Road. Lin credited the photo to a private contributor who told her the group later boarded a tour bus heading north.

In response, Cheng's office denied it mobilized migrant workers.

It was raining on Saturday, so a group of Cheng's supporters asked his office staff at the rally whether they could give them hats, Cheng's office said in a statement on Saturday night. The office did not conduct a background check of all participants at the time, it added.

The office said it later confirmed that some of the participants were foreign-born spouses of Taiwanese citizens, who also held Taiwanese citizenship.

Others were children of Taiwanese citizens and their foreign spouses, Cheng's office said, claiming that none were migrant workers.

Meanwhile, the MOL said in a statement on Saturday night that it will launch an investigation with the NIA to clarify the situation and take action if any laws were broken.

The Employment Service Act stipulates that employers must not "assign the employed foreign worker to work outside the scope of the work permitted," according to the MOL.

Employers found to have contravened this rule will receive a fine of NT$30,000 (US$921.64) to NT$150,000 and have their authorization to hire foreign workers revoked, the MOL said.