Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/18
By: Joseph Yeh, CNA staff reporter
In the past two months, 15 immigrants from Southeast Asia have died in two fires that
ravaged buildings in northern Taiwan.
The first incident occurred Nov. 22 at an apartment building in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District, killing nine people, some of whom were living in an illegally constructed fifth-floor apartment that had no fire safety features.
On Dec. 14, six of 12 Vietnamese migrant workers housed in a factory dormitory in Taoyuan died in a fire that destroyed a factory warehouse, which was also the site of an illegally designated dorm.
The deaths of the 15 immigrants have highlighted the issue of low-income housing safety and standards in Taiwan and turned the spotlight in particular on accommodation for migrant workers.