This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Heart.
Taichung Metropolis, Taiwan – Bernard retains a low profile.
Heading to work on the streets of Taiwan, the 45-year-old Filipino migrant employee dodges glances and infrequently checks his face masks to verify his look is hid.
To cover his accent, he usually speaks in a near-whisper.
Usually, he declines invites to social events from his fellow countrymen, anxious {that a} “Judas” amongst them may report him to the authorities.
Employed at one in every of Taiwan’s many electronics factories, Bernard got here to the island legally in 2016.
However since June 2024, he has been amongst Taiwan’s rising inhabitants of undocumented employees. He blames his dealer, a non-public employment agent to which migrants are normally assigned, for his present predicament.
Bernard’s dealer tried to confiscate his passport, he mentioned, then tried to persuade him to resign and forgo severance funds from his employer.
He refused each instances, he mentioned, inflicting a rift between them.
“They [brokers] solely converse to you once they come to gather funds or once they wish to trick you,” Bernard, who requested to make use of a pseudonym out of worry of repercussions, instructed Al Jazeera.
Brokers in Taiwan take a lower of their shoppers’ wages and have vital affect over their circumstances and job prospects, making their relationships vulnerable to abuse.
When Bernard’s contract expired in 2022, he mentioned, his dealer blacklisted him amongst different employers.
Determined to help his daughter’s schooling within the Philippines, Bernard ditched his dealer and determined to overstay his visa to work odd building jobs, he mentioned.
Nowadays, he mentioned, he feels “like a chook in a cage”.
In public, Bernard wouldn’t even utter the phrase “undocumented” in any language, solely gesturing along with his palms that he ran away.
Taiwan’s undocumented workforce is rising quick.
The variety of unaccounted-for migrants on the island has doubled within the final 4 years, reaching 90,000 this January, based on the Ministry of Labor.
Regardless of Taiwan’s picture as one of many area’s uncommon liberal democracies, a rising variety of Southeast Asian migrant employees are residing beneath the fixed menace of deportation and with out entry to social companies.
Taiwan institutionalised its dealer system in 1992 in a bid to streamline labour recruitment.
Brokers affect nearly each facet of a migrant employee’s life, from the place they dwell, to their meals, to the phrases of their employment contracts, and even how they entry public companies.
Migrant rights advocates say it’s exactly this stage of management that’s prompting massive numbers of employees to flee their workplaces.
Over a 3rd of all complaints made by migrants to the Ministry of Labor are broker-related, based on official information.
As of January 2025, Vietnamese made up the most important share of the undocumented at 57,611, adopted by Indonesians at 28,363, and Filipinos at 2,750.
Pleasure Tajonera, a Catholic priest who runs the Ugnayan Heart, a migrant shelter in Taichung Metropolis, mentioned the Taiwanese authorities has taken a lax method to the problem.
“The system permits the brokers an influence for use to the drawback of migrants,” Tajonera instructed Al Jazeera.
“In the meantime, employers play harmless.”
Brokers usually cost migrants a month-to-month service payment of $50 to $60, and likewise gather charges for job transfers, hospital insurance coverage, depart, and many of the crucial documentation to work in Taiwan.
In some instances, they impose age limits for sure jobs.
Tajonera mentioned many undocumented employees can truly earn extra with out a dealer, “however then you definitely lose all social protections and medical insurance. It’s not that they wish to run away. It’s their scenario, they’ll’t take it any extra.”
‘Shameless and silly’
Taiwan’s Labor Ministry mentioned in a press release that the rise in undocumented migrants was pushed by pandemic-related disruption to deportations.
It mentioned it has taken numerous steps to enhance circumstances for migrant works, together with elevating the minimal wage, conducting common inspections of recruitment businesses, introducing a brand new suspension mechanism for businesses with excessive charges of absconding employees, and inspiring labour-sending international locations to scale back company charges.
“By way of pre-employment orientation for industrial migrant employees and one-stop orientation periods for family caregivers, the ministry goals to reinforce employees’ consciousness of authorized necessities, inform them of the dangers and penalties of going lacking, and guarantee employers fulfill their administration obligations,” the ministry mentioned.
Nonetheless, since final yr, the Taiwanese authorities has additionally elevated the most fines for migrants caught overstaying their visas from $330 to $1,657.
Lennon Ying-Da Wang, director of the general public migrant shelter Serve the Folks Affiliation, referred to as the federal government’s transfer to extend penalties “shameless and silly”.
“As a substitute of addressing the explanations for working away, it will simply forestall individuals from surrendering,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
Wang mentioned an absence of protections, significantly for these working in childcare and fisheries, is the important thing motive why many migrants abscond from their workplaces.
Neither trade is topic to Taiwan’s month-to-month minimal wage of $944, based on Taiwan’s Labor Requirements Act.
Wang mentioned migrants in apply usually obtain half that quantity minus deductions by brokers.
“Migrants simply desire a respectable wage,” Wang mentioned. “However there’s an unstated rule amongst some brokers to not rent migrant employees who ask for assist from shelters. That forces them to run away.”
Regardless of his sympathies, Wang, because the director of a state-funded facility, is just not allowed to absorb migrants who’ve absconded from their employers as they’re topic to deportation.
On a quiet, nondescript street on the fringe of Taipei lies Concord Residence, an NGO catering to undocumented younger moms and youngsters.
Whereas the ladies and kids who keep at Concord Residence can’t be deported for humanitarian causes, the state is just not obligated to shoulder the prices of their care or medical wants.
Concord Residence, which has taken in additional than 1,600 youngsters over the previous twenty years, has lately seen a pointy uptick in minors coming by way of its doorways, founder Nicole Yang mentioned.
“Final yr, we had about 110 new youngsters. By April this yr, we’ve already received 140,” Yang instructed Al Jazeera.
“We additionally look after 300 others who dwell at house whereas their mom works.”
Li-Chuan Liuhuang, a labour professional at Nationwide Chung Cheng College, mentioned that whereas the dealer system can be troublesome to “uproot instantly”, the federal government might enhance oversight by “making the recruitment process and value construction extra clear”.
In Lishan, a mountainous space of Taichung, lots of of undocumented Southeast Asians decide peaches, pears and cabbages for native landowners. The presence of runaway migrants, a lot of whom fled fishing trawlers, is just not solely tolerated however relied upon for the harvest.
Liuhuang mentioned she wish to see such migrants being allowed to work on farms with correct labour protections, however she believes this might not be straightforward for the general public to simply accept.
“The federal government must commit extra efforts for this sort of dialogue,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
Mary, who requested to make use of a pseudonym, mentioned she absconded from her job as a childcare employee to work illegally at numerous mountain farms after changing into pissed off at incomes lower than half the minimal wage and having her grievances ignored by her dealer.
Sitting beside a cabbage patch, Mary, 46, mentioned she all the time felt anxious across the police within the metropolis.
However in Lishan the principles are totally different, she mentioned, as landowners have an unwritten settlement with the authorities concerning the runaways.
“There’s no method the boss doesn’t have connections with the police. He all the time is aware of once they come and tells us to not exit,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
Even so, there is no such thing as a assure of avoiding mistreatment within the mountains.
After the harvest, employers typically withhold funds, threatening anybody who complains with deportation, Mary mentioned.
“If I complain that the boss doesn’t give me the wage, I’ll get reported. Who will assist me?” she mentioned.
