epidemiological status, and risk of infectious diseases of their countries of
origin and the possible impacts of such on domestic epidemic prevention and
safety.143
111. Recommendations: The NHRC believes that the provisions of the Regulations
Governing Management of the Health Examination of Employed Aliens , which
classify aliens by job type and use country of origin as the primary indicator
for establishing differing regulations concerning health examinations,
should be further examined to determine if the provisions have resulted in
differential treatment towards aliens of specific nationalities as specified
in §9 of General Recommendation No. 30. The legitimacy, necessity, and
reasonableness of the provisions should also be carefully considered.
II. Occupational accident prevention and compensation
112. According to MOL statistics, there were 125 major occupational accidents
involving foreign workers engaged in basic manual jobs over the past five
years (2018 to 2022) resulting in 132 deaths (including 20 deaths and 10
injuries of undocumented migrant workers). Furthermore, according to the
investigation reports forwarded by the Control Yuan, there have been cases
where migrant workers were reluctant to seek medical treatment for fear
of being repatriated to their home countries, or were forcibly repatriated
by unscrupulous agents and employers while they were still in medical
treatment or filing for compensation. After migrant workers suffering from
occupational accidents returned to their home countries, they or their
surviving family members often found it difficult to claim social insurance
143
In its February 22, 2023 written reply after the NHRC’s 1st government agency meeting, the MOHW states: “According
to the results of past infectious disease monitoring and epidemic investigation, the risk of contracting specific notifiable
infectious diseases is higher for aliens in the second and third categories than for aliens in the first category; therefore it
is necessary to provide different types of health examinations for different types of workers, so as to meet the principle of
equality and the needs of epidemic prevention.”
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