Laws surrounding migrant workers have changed, but there is still much to be done before Taiwan’s migrant laborers can live with dignity.
The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/27
By: Morley James Weston
A decade ago, the Rev. Peter Nguyen Van Hung was advocating the rights of Vietnamese
Credit: Lee Mu-yi
women who were brought to Taiwan as brides. In the past decade, though, he has shifted his scope to protecting migrant laborers in Taiwan, both household help and workers on farms and factories.
Hung left Vietnam for Australia and became a Catholic priest before finally settling in Taiwan, where he has been instrumental in setting up organizations to protect migrant workers and raise awareness of their plight. He currently coordinates the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office in Taoyuan.
A spry man in his late 50s, unafraid to pause for a full minute to collect his thoughts, Hung has a lot to say about the situation of Vietnamese living in Taiwan and what can be done to lift them out of a cycle of exploitation.
Courtesy of Peter Nguyen Van HungHung campaigned with the Migrant Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT) to change Article 52 of the Employment Service Act.
More than a decade ago, he was instrumental in downgrading Taiwan’s status in the U.S. State department’s Trafficking in Person’s Report rankings in 2004, and has been recognized by the U.S. as a hero in combating slavery. He says he still receives threats and harassment for his work, which was a big blow to Taiwan’s image as a regional beacon of human rights. Taiwan was restored to a tier one country in 2010 after the passage of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act. But, says Hung, there is still much to be done to end slavery in Taiwan.
