The Indonesian narrator utters the words, “Taiwan is not as beautiful as profile pictures on Facebook”.“Sponsors [labour brokers] and PJTKI always have sweet promises to spread persuasion. Promises sometimes contradict reality [in Taiwan].”
Tari’s promised job at a toy factory was not as advertised. She was the only female in the plant of around 100 male colleagues. She was asked to clean up the factory, wash trucks, and even tidy the factory owner’s flat. She returned to Indonesia in 2016. It is quite common for Indonesian migrant workers to fly home at the completion of their three-year contracts and then return to Taiwan for another job.
Of the almost 665,000 foreign workers on the island, almost 236,000 or around 35 per cent are Indonesian according to Taiwan’s Labour Ministry. That is the highest number of such workers in Taiwan. “What irks me is when there are comments like, ‘You are all dangerous’,” Tari said in the film. “‘So you all have a higher risk of being infected by and transmitting the virus than Taiwanese.’ Sometimes in my heart, I think: ‘What is wrong with us?’”In December 2020, Taiwan banned the arrival of migrant workers from Indonesia – the Southeast Asian country hardest hit by the pandemic – after some Indonesians who arrived on the island earlier tested positive for the virus.
Susmiati, who is a co-founder of Ganas said she heard stories of how some Indonesians had to pay from 70 to 100 million rupiah, or about US$4,886 to US$6,980 each for placement and processing fees – excluding Covid-19 quarantine and agency fees once in Taiwan.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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