TAIWAN PROPOSES TOTAL FREEZE ON PHILIPPINE WORKERS?

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Minister Jennifer Wang of the Council of Labor Affairs(CLA) said yesterday that her council will adopt an across-the-board freeze on the import of Philippines workers if the Philippines government fails to show goodwill to Taiwan in the wake of its failure to apologize for the wrongful deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China earlier this month.
Wang made the remarks in response to questions from reporters when attending a spring-gathering with local businesses and industrial associations.

• The CLA head said that the CLA will follow the example of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in handling the row with the Philippines arising from the wrongful deportation case.
• Once the CLA decides to freeze the entry of Philippines laborers across the board, there will be no timetable on how long the freeze remains in place unless the Philippine government shows goodwill toward Taiwan.
• During the gathering, six major local industrial and business associations voiced their support for the government's possible freeze on the import of workers from the Philippines, in a bid to safeguard the dignity of the nation.
• Lin Bing-bin, chairman of the National Association of Small & Medium Enterprises of the R.O.C., which hosted yesterday's party, said that although freezing the entry of Philippines workers would impact on the local enterprises, the impact can be minimized by introducing workers from other Southeast Asian countries.
• Lin continued that the government can introduce more workers from Indonesia to serve as domestic helpers or caretakers, and import more from Thailand to work in manufacturing and construction industries. “As long as the aggregate number of foreign workers allowed into Taiwan is not reduced, local enterprises won't suffer from an across-the-board freeze on Philippines workers.
• Also the legislative caucus of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party called for the government to immediately enforce an across-the-board freeze on entry of Philippines workers, shut down the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan and terminate all the lending programs granted to the Philippines, if the Philippines insists on refusing to apologize to Taiwan for its wrongful deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to China.

A Philippines special envoy, former Senator Manuel Roxas, recently came to Taiwan to meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Timothy Yang and President Ma Ying-jeou to settle the diplomatic row with Taiwan arising from the deportation case, but he did not offer an apology for the event during the meetings.

Source: The China Post