Taiwan expects to bring in migrant workers from Indonesia to work in the agriculture and livestock farming sector as early as September, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) announced Thursday following a bilateral meeting between the two countries.
The meeting held Wednesday and Thursday in Bali, Indonesia, ended with eight agreements, including the opening up of the sector to Indonesian migrant workers, the ministry said.
Taiwan has allowed the hiring of migrant workers from Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines in the sector since 2019 as there is a shortage of labor, but the employment of Indonesian workers has been restricted to those being already working in Taiwan.
At the bilateral meeting, the labor authorities of the two countries agreed to speed up efforts to put in place systems for the recruitment of migrant workers from Indonesia for farming, said Paul Su (蘇裕國), head of the Cross-Border Workforce Management Division under the MOL’s Workforce Development Agency.
The ministry hopes to roll out the opening-up policy in September, Su told CNA.
The hiring of migrant workers in the sector is currently capped at 12,000, doubling the previous limit of 6,000 earlier this year, with a minimum monthly wage of NT$26,400 (US$831.7) in line with the law, according to the ministry.
Meanwhile, both sides agreed to simplify application procedures for Indonesian migrant workers, including those who return to their home country, to apply for intermediate skilled positions with no maximum limitation on work years, based on the Retention of Foreign Intermediate Skilled Workforce Program, the MOL said at a press release.
Among other agreements reached at the meeting were a set of measures designed to address several issues with the brokerage system that expose migrant workers to multiple hidden fees, according to the press release.
Source: Focus Taiwan
