KMT Says Migrant Workers Gone Missing a Growing Problem in Taiwan

Opposition Kuomintang legislators are sounding the alarm over what they say is a rising number of migrant workers who are unaccounted for in Taiwan.

Transcript

00:00A migrant worker, required to leave Taiwan after her work contract expired, escapes a

00:05security line in Taoyuan Airport, changing clothes and fleeing by cab.

00:09The incident raising concerns among Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang legislators about what

00:13they say is a rising number of migrant workers who are unaccounted for in the country.

00:30Last year, KMT legislators said around 90,000 foreign workers were unaccounted for in Taiwan.

00:38But the Labor Ministry has emphasized that the percentage of unaccounted-for workers

00:41declined in recent years, to just under 3 percent last year.

00:46And while the opposition blames the government for failing to prevent migrant workers from

00:49going missing, migrant rights activists say it's the systems that employ workers that

00:53drive them to go to ground.

01:00One solution, they say, is to improve working conditions for migrant workers, conditions

01:15that have been exposed as often being exploitative, and which migrant workers have been fighting

01:19to improve for years.

01:22Fu Huahong and Cadence Cuaranta for Taiwan Plus.