Ruling and opposition trade barbs on Indian migrant worker scheme｜Taiwan News

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The Minister of Labor, Hung Shen-han recently announced that Taiwan will introduce 1,000 migrant workers from India, a decision that was met with fierce opposition from the public. By late afternoon Monday, almost 35,000 signed a petition urging the labor minister to reconsider the policy, which is based on an MOU signed two years ago between Taiwan and India. In the face of intense public backlash, ruling and opposition parties have started trading barbs on the issue.

Wang Hung-wei
Lawmaker (KMT)
The entirety of DPP-affiliated Bluebirds is going all out to shift the blame onto opposition parties. But allow me to ask, back when the Executive Yuan’s labor and foreign ministries signed the MOU, were the Legislative Yuan’s opposition parties the ones that made you sign it?

The KMT legislative caucus held a press conference on Monday morning to oppose the introduction of migrant workers from India. The administration plans to introduce 1,000 Indian workers from the northeastern state of Mizoram by year-end.

Chuang Jui-hsiung
Lawmaker (DPP)
Protecting the rights and interests of local workers, solving Taiwan’s industry-wide labor shortage, and ensuring the rights and interests of migrant workers—these three aspects were the center of discussions then at the Legislative Yuan. But now the KMT is throwing us another question, asking us how we plan to deal with the issue of public security. Well, speaking of which, it’s on all three political parties to urge the public to rationally discuss this issue.

The DPP retorts that the KMT has backpedalled on its support for the policy. They also urge the opposition to foster constructive discussions on the issue.

Chiu Cheng-chun (June 26, 2024)
Lawmaker (KMT)
Our labor shortage is a serious problem. Just now, when the minister answered questions from other legislators, she mentioned that we’ll start with 1,000 people. We also hope that she’ll implement this as soon as possible.

Jonathan Lin
Lawmaker (KMT)
Back then, we were referring to India’s highly skilled engineers, like those in Silicon Valley. They would actually be beneficial to our science parks. I think that’s a good thing. But we now know that it’s entry-level workers we’re speaking of.

Many Taiwanese citizens also oppose the policy. Within five days, more than 30,000 have signed an online petition for the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Labor to immediately terminate plans to introduce Indian workers. The Ministry of Labor responded by saying that they will fully consider and assess the impact of the scheme on the wider society and that they won’t move the scheme forward hastily.

Lin Yueh-chin
Lawmaker (DPP)
What you’re mentioning now is definitely not what KMT lawmakers were saying. Our discussions then were on how we should introduce the workers, and how soon. I also hope that the KMT will remember what they’ve said.

Though there are currently Indian workers living in Taiwan, their jobs are mostly in the tech and engineering sectors. But the new policy aims to bring in Indian nationals as migrant workers in entry-level manufacturing.

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