This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Middle.
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 ensure 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, nervous {that a} “Judas” amongst them would possibly report him to the authorities.
Employed at one in all 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 staff. He blames his dealer, a personal employment agent to which migrants are often 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 occasions, he mentioned, inflicting a rift between them.
“They [brokers] solely converse to you after they come to gather funds or after they need to trick you,” Bernard, who requested to make use of a pseudonym out of worry of repercussions, informed Al Jazeera.
Brokers in Taiwan take a lower of their shoppers’ wages and have vital affect over their situations 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 fingers 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, in keeping with 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 staff are dwelling underneath the fixed menace of deportation and with out entry to social providers.
Taiwan institutionalised its dealer system in 1992 in a bid to streamline labour recruitment.
Brokers affect nearly each side 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 providers.
Migrant rights advocates say it’s exactly this stage of management that’s prompting massive numbers of staff to flee their workplaces.
Over a 3rd of all complaints made by migrants to the Ministry of Labor are broker-related, in keeping with official knowledge.
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 Middle, a migrant shelter in Taichung Metropolis, mentioned the Taiwanese authorities has taken a lax strategy to the problem.
“The system permits the brokers an influence for use to the drawback of migrants,” Tajonera informed Al Jazeera.
“In the meantime, employers play harmless.”
Brokers sometimes cost migrants a month-to-month service price of $50 to $60, and in addition gather charges for job transfers, hospital insurance coverage, go away, and many of the vital documentation to work in Taiwan.
In some instances, they impose age limits for sure jobs.
Tajonera mentioned many undocumented staff can truly earn extra with no dealer, “however then you definately lose all social protections and medical insurance. It’s not that they need to run away. It’s their state of affairs, they will’t take it any extra.”
‘Shameless and silly’
Taiwan’s Labor Ministry mentioned in an announcement that the rise in undocumented migrants was pushed by pandemic-related disruption to deportations.
It mentioned it has taken numerous steps to enhance situations 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 staff, and inspiring labour-sending nations to scale back company charges.
“By way of pre-employment orientation for industrial migrant staff and one-stop orientation classes for family caregivers, the ministry goals to reinforce staff’ consciousness of authorized necessities, inform them of the dangers and penalties of going lacking, and guarantee employers fulfill their administration duties,” the ministry mentioned.
Nevertheless, since final 12 months, 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, known as the federal government’s transfer to extend penalties “shameless and silly”.
“As an alternative of addressing the explanations for working away, it will simply stop individuals from surrendering,” he informed Al Jazeera.
Wang mentioned a scarcity of protections, significantly for these working in childcare and fisheries, is the important thing purpose why many migrants abscond from their workplaces.
Neither business is topic to Taiwan’s month-to-month minimal wage of $944, in keeping with Taiwan’s Labor Requirements Act.
Wang mentioned migrants in apply usually obtain half that quantity minus deductions by brokers.
“Migrants simply desire a first rate wage,” Wang mentioned. “However there’s an unstated rule amongst some brokers to not rent migrant staff 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, just isn’t allowed to absorb migrants who’ve absconded from their employers as they’re topic to deportation.
On a quiet, nondescript highway on the fringe of Taipei lies Concord House, an NGO catering to undocumented younger moms and youngsters.
Whereas the ladies and youngsters who keep at Concord House can’t be deported for humanitarian causes, the state just isn’t obligated to shoulder the prices of their care or medical wants.
Concord House, which has taken in additional than 1,600 youngsters over the previous 20 years, has lately seen a pointy uptick in minors coming via its doorways, founder Nicole Yang mentioned.
“Final 12 months, we had about 110 new children. By April this 12 months, we’ve already bought 140,” Yang informed Al Jazeera.
“We additionally take care of 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 shall be tough to “uproot instantly”, the federal government might enhance oversight by “making the recruitment process and price construction extra clear”.
In Lishan, a mountainous space of Taichung, a whole bunch of undocumented Southeast Asians decide peaches, pears and cabbages for native landowners. The presence of runaway migrants, a lot of whom fled fishing trawlers, just isn’t solely tolerated however relied upon for the harvest.
Liuhuang mentioned she want to see such migrants being allowed to work on farms with correct labour protections, however she believes this is able to not be straightforward for the general public to just accept.
“The federal government should commit extra efforts for this type of dialogue,” she informed 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 annoyed 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 in regards to the runaways.
“There’s no means the boss doesn’t have connections with the police. He all the time is aware of after they come and tells us to not exit,” she informed Al Jazeera.
Even so, there isn’t 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.