The 10th Taiwan-Philippines Joint Labor Conference was held earlier this month in Taipei City, highlighting the like-minded partners’ commitment to protection of the rights of migrant workers and deepen of labor cooperation.
Hosted by Vice Labor Minister Chen Ming-jen and his counterpart at the Filipino Department of Migrant Workers, the conference was attended by Wallace Minn-gan Chow, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines; Corazon Avecilla-Padiernos, chair and resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, and officials from the Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Foreign Affairs and the National Development Council.
According to the Ministry of Labor, items reaching consensus during the meeting included updating a memorandum of understanding on direct employment to cover skilled jobs in travel and accommodation sectors, among others, and strengthening the information exchange mechanism to prevent illegal recruitment and human trafficking. The two governments agreed to promote direct recruitment of skilled labor between the countries and establish a recognition and introduction system, the ministry said.
The two sides further urged labor agencies to actively contact missing migrant workers and their families, encourage self-reporting and deal with issues like medical care and repatriation, the MOL said. It added that the participants assented to strengthened information exchanges and management mechanisms to jointly protect the rights of migrant workers who thought they would go to work in one another’s countries, but may instead be sent to work in a third country.
Since 2006 Taiwan and the Philippines have held labor conferences on a regular basis, taking turns to host the events, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The two administrations will continue to deepen bilateral labor partnership through such conferences while working together to safeguard the interests of migrant workers and jointly promote mutual development and prosperity, the ministry added. (YCH-E)
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