More than 1,400 runaway migrant workers detained

CRACKDOWN:As well as the workers, 18 illegal labor brokers and 150 people who had illegally employed foreigners have also been uncovered

6 Nov 2010 -- More than 1,400 runaway migrant workers have been detained during a crackdown over the past month in response to the deaths of illegally employed migrants at a construction site in late September, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

“As of Nov. 3, 1,414 runaway foreign workers had been rounded up since the launch of a massive crackdown on Oct. 1,” Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said. “Absconded migrant workers are encouraged to come forward and to end their days in hiding, which puts them at risk of being mistreated by employers who hire them illegally.”

The National Immigration Agency will help those who give themselves up return to their home countries quickly and safely, he said.

Over the past month, 150 people who had illegally employed foreign workers and 18 illegal labor brokers were also uncovered, Jiang said.

The latest crackdown was launched days after six illegal foreign workers were killed in an accident at a freeway construction site in Nantou County.

According to statistics compiled by the ministry, 6,558 runaway foreign workers, 649 illegal employers and 52 illegal brokers were uncovered in the first nine months of this year.

In one of the latest cases, the Coast Guard Administration’s branch office in southern Taiwan announced the arrest of an illegal immigrant from northern Vietnam in a private house in Taichung on Friday.

The Vietnamese was cited as having said that he wanted to work in Taiwan because there were few jobs in his home country and that wages were very low there.

Many of his Vietnamese compatriots had already come to Taiwan through legal or illegal channels, he said.

A coast guard official who did not want to be named said an increasing number of illegal immigrants from Vietnam had been detained in recent years. Many of them used to work in the Vietnamese military. - Staff Writer, with CNA, http://www.taipeitimes.com