Foreign domestic helpers and family-based caregivers entering Taiwan in the new year will be subject to a new arrivals process, after a one-stop service integrating several applications from employers and brokerage firms is launched in late December, the Ministry of Labor announced Friday.
The website of the “Migrant Workers One-Stop Service Center” will begin accepting applications on Dec. 20 from employers and brokerage firms for domestic helpers and family-based caregivers scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on and after Jan. 1, 2023, ministry official Paul Su (???) told reporters that day.
The new online service is part of simplified procedures for newly arrived domestic helpers and family-based caregivers. It also includes those who have worked in Taiwan previously but not attended a course for newly arrived migrant workers within five years before their arrival, said Su, who heads the Cross-Border Workforce Management Division under the ministry’s Workforce Development Agency.
Upon arrival, the workers will be picked up by the ministry and sent to a service center in Taoyuan or Kaohsiung to attend an eight-hour orientation course over two days, with free accommodation provided, according to Su.
Workers will be picked up by their employers or brokerage firms on the third day, Su said.
Currently, migrant workers entering Taiwan receive a 30-minute course on local laws and workers’ rights at the airport.
For employers and brokerages firms, the one-stop service covers applications for employment permits, alien resident certificates (ARC), national health insurance (NHI) and occupational accident insurance, Su said.
The migrant workers will receive their ARC and NHI cards when they are picked up after completing the course, Su said, noting that the process takes one to one-and-a-half months under the current system.
Employers and brokerage firms need to submit their applications online a minimum of five days before the arrival of a domestic helper and family-based caregivers, or the worker will not be allowed to board the flight to Taiwan, Su said.
For instance, if a domestic helper is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on New Year’s Day, the employer or brokerage firm needs to submit the application on Dec. 27 at the latest, according to Su.
The one-stop service is expected to cover around 50,000 migrant domestic helpers and family-based caregivers and their employers annually, and will next be extended to fishery workers, Su said.
Expanding the service to workers in other sectors will be considered, he added.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel