Part II >
Our Efforts and Transformation
living and cultural situations in an alien country.
As this group of over 700,000 migrant workers
is mainly working in rural villages, factories,
fishing vessels, and civilian homes not easily
seen by the general public over time, the general
impression about them mostly comes from
personal experiences or stereotypes. There is a
lack of proper understanding of them.
As the competent authority of migrant worker
management, instead of simply limiting the
rights and freedom of migrant workers, the MOL
must “fully and effectively address” problems
concerning the migrant workers’ rights, the
legitimacy of differential treatment, and the
limitation of some specific rights. In the forum,
representatives of the Workforce Development
Agency (WDA) of MOL maintained that the
MOL was integrating the positions of different
ministries and commissions so as to actively
promote the domestication of the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
(Migrant Workers Convention) in Taiwan.
Although local domestic caregivers are the target
workforce of Taiwan’s long-term care system,
migrant workers in social welfare are the actual
caregiver workforce in Taiwan. Currently, a dualtrack phenomenon is observed in Taiwan’s care
system and care workforce, i.e., Taiwan’s longterm care system and foreign domestic helper
employment system. As both systems run almost
in parallel, marking out the problems in this
dual-track care labor market and the defects in
migrant worker protection legislation. Starting out
from the C189—Domestic Workers Convention
(2011) of the International Labour Organization
(ILO), Professor Liuhuang Li-chuan argued
favorably for human rights, she reviewed the
situation of foreign caregivers, and pointed out
that the inadequacy of making long-term care as
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National Human Rights Commission 2022 Annual Report
a public service has led to a lose-lose situation
arising from the conflicts between families in
need of long-term care service and foreign home
caregivers, leaving the human rights issue of
migrant workers in social welfare unattended.
No labor issues can be separated from business
operations. Based on the development of
globalization, when a business forms its
workforce with more workers from different
countries, the sustainable development of the
business and the human rights protection of
migrant workers will never run in parallel but
go hand in hand. In accordance with Article
11 of the United Nations Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), “Business
enterprises should respect human rights.” In the
forum, panelists introduced the development
potential of related systems in different countries,
such as the latest human rights due diligence
laws and the human rights risk elimination
systems of Germany, France, and the EU.
They also reminded the relevant government
departments that the sustainable development
of businesses, human rights of migrant workers,
and environmental sustainability are immediate,
important issues in the global supply chain.
From our investigation to the forum, we
continuously gathered information from different
parts of society and spared no efforts in inviting
interested parties and related government
agencies to discuss the relevant issues. Through
the set-up of the forum agenda and the feedback
of participants, we verified the next working
plan of the NHRC. Although it was only a oneday forum, we hope to turn the event outcomes
into the materials of human rights education and
make discussion on the human rights of migrant
workers more popular.