Sexual assault case highlights flaws in migrant worker rules: NGOs

Taipei, Aug. 2 (CNA) Migrant worker advocacy groups urged Friday that rules on recruiting migrant workers and procedures to protect their rights be tightened in the wake of a case in which an Indonesian live-in caregiver was sexually assaulted by her employer.

Hsiao Yi-cai (蕭以采) from the Serve the People Association (SPA) in Taoyuan, said at a news conference that a loophole in the rules made it possible for the employer, a convicted fugitive, to hire the Indonesian caregiver and abuse her for almost 10 months.

Although the man, a Keelung resident, was convicted of sexually assaulting a Taiwanese woman, he was still able to hire a migrant caregiver for an elderly family member because he had not been indicted or convicted of sexually assaulting a migrant worker in his employ, Hsiao said.

She later told CNA that the man had fled after being handed a guilty verdict and jail time in the third and final trial of the case.

The SPA and the other groups demanded that the Labor and Interior ministries work together to enhance information sharing to identify and restrict the eligibility of people found guilty of infringing upon the personal freedom of others to hire migrant workers.

That should be the case, they said, regardless of whether the victim was a migrant worker, Taiwanese or a person of any other nationality.

Under the Employment Service Act, people convicted or indicted for a sexual assault, sexual harassment, or assault against migrant workers in the two years preceding the date of an application are barred from hiring migrant workers.

Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國), head of the Ministry of Labor's Cross-Border Workforce Management Division, said the ministry was considering proposing an amendment so that the ban on people convicted of those crimes is extended to five years and recidivists are prohibited from ever hiring migrant workers again.

But the groups insisted that the restriction should also apply to people who commit similar acts against Taiwanese.

At the news conference, the Indonesian caregiver said there was no one who required care at the suspect's home and that she had instead been used as a maid and forced into sexual servitude, adding that she was also not paid during the time she was there.

She further accused the man of hitting her with an electric cable and spraying an unknown medicine on her wounds, causing them to fester.

Hsiao said although the man did not seize her mobile phone, he would keep close tabs on her, limit her outside contact by frequently checking her mobile phone, and take her along whenever he had to leave his home.

The caregiver was finally able to contact SPA for help when she was left at home alone in late June due to an illness, Hsiao said.

Her experience also exposed another problem, the NGOs at the press conference said.

The Keelung City's Department of Social Affairs did not visit the caregiver at her workplace even after she started her job to see her working environment, contravening the Regulations on the Permission and Administration of the Employment of Foreign Workers.

They said any negligent department personnel should be held accountable and punished.

Noting that Taipei and Taoyuan make phone calls to foreign workers who have just started work in Taiwan or previously filed grievances, they called on other labor agencies at the local government level to follow suit.

Su said the labor ministry has launched a program to visit migrants working for employers who were found guilty or accused of sexual assault against migrant workers they previously hired, and uncovered two cases requiring attention among more than 100 visits conducted last year.

Ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬), who attended the news conference, said of all types of migrant workers, migrant caregivers are most vulnerable to sexual assault due to their insulated working environment.

Citing statistics released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Lin said of the 1,363 reports of sexual assault against migrant workers filed between 2007 and 2023, about 73 percent involved migrant caregivers.

Noting that victims of sexual assault often do not dare come forward to report perpetrators, Lin said the cases recorded by the MOHW were likely the tip of the iceberg.