Migrant worker with expired visa dies in Taipei in work accident

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) A construction worker who died in Taipei on Saturday has been identified as a Vietnamese migrant worker who overstayed his work permit.

Law enforcement sources indicated that the deceased was driving a skid loader as he was dismantling a showroom that had been set up in Taipei's Shilin District to promote a new real estate development project.

The showrooms are used to drive pre-construction sales of units in buildings erected on the sites where the showrooms are located and then torn down when construction is ready to begin.

The worker who died Saturday was killed after the second floor of the showroom he was working on collapsed on top of him.

According to the sources, two other workers were also present but fled the site following the unnamed worker's death.

Law enforcement authorities are not ruling out the possibility that the two other construction workers, one a Taiwanese national and the other a Vietnamese, abandoned their excavators and left the scene because they knew the deceased was working on an overstayed visa.

The case was first reported to Taipei's first responders at 1:44 p.m. on Saturday.

The city's Construction Management Office Director Yu Chi-hsueh (虞積學) said the dismantling of the Shilin showroom began on March 21.

Operations have now ceased at the site, and the project's developer will be fined NT$90,000 (US$2,800) in accordance with Taiwan's Building Act.

In a press release Saturday, the Construction Management Office revealed that the development company is Luxury Construction, adding that the showroom's architect will be fined the same amount.

The city will also issue an additional NT$300,000 fine for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act.