Inter Faith – NGO Forum a Success

An inter Faith – NGO forum on Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) proposal on the financial management of foreign workers held yesterday was a great success. The participants agreed to discuss and circulate a petition in their congregations both local and foreign calling on the CLA not to implement said proposal. This forum was organized by the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) and Fr. Joyalito Tajonera, M.M.

There was also a suggestion from one participant to organize a bigger activity sometime next year to discuss all the problems besetting migrant workers in Taiwan. The objective of this is to make known to the Taiwanese public the problems besetting this underprivileged sector of Taiwan society.

Nineteen participants from 6 Christian denominations including two American Pastors, the Muslim Imam of Taipei Grand Mosque, Taiwan Muslim Committee, 5 NGO’s and a mass organization of foreign teachers in Taiwan attended the activity. This was held at the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) General Assembly Office. The PCT is the biggest Christian Church in Taiwan and was represented by Deputy Secretary General Chuang Shu-Chen.

The main speaker was Wu Chia-Pei, the Director of the Education Department of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR). She described in detail how the CLA proposal would further violate the migrants’ human rights and at the same time even Taiwan’s own banking, privacy and property rights law. Chia Pei added that the proposal would also shift the responsibility of the employers to the migrant workers themselves.

The APMM on the other hand gave a rundown on what has been done by different groups and the developments against the proposal. It also aired out an appeal to the religious of different Faiths to lend a hand to the blue collar foreign workers to broaden the support for them. This challenge was accepted by the participants who promised to add their voices to the migrant workers.

This is also the first time that an inter Faith forum was organized to advocate against the proposed "financial management". It augurs well for the broadening of solidarity for them. Migrant workers on the other hand should use this occasion to further study the proposal and solidify their ranks by joining a campaign alliance already set up against this. By strengthening both the advocacy and the position of the migrants, it would be more difficult for the CLA to implement said proposal.