Taipei Times
Date: Dec 24, 2017
By: Chien Hui-ju and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
It was 1999 when Allison Lee (李麗華), then 35 years old and working at the Taipei
Labor rights campaigner Allison Lee, left, talks to a fisherman in Yilan County on Dec. 12. Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Department of Labor, first came into contact with migrant workers.
After a brief stint at the department, Lee discovered that bureaucracy was hindering her efforts to help them and decided that working for a civilian organization would be more practical.
Now 53, Lee continues to work to uphold the rights of migrant workers, despite having experienced verbal threats from ship owners and their intermediaries.
“My only hope is that one day migrant workers will no longer be exploited,” she said.
When asked why she dedicated her life to helping migrant workers, Lee said it might have stemmed from her experiences working in a factory in then-Taoyuan County after she graduated from vocational high school. [FULL STORY]
