In a bridge underpass in Taiwan’s capital Taipei, 26-year-old warehouse worker Sustrinso Ino enjoys a rare moment to himself, looking on as punk band Southern Riot take to a makeshift stage. As they begin to play, a mosh pit forms and audience members chant along to the lyrics. Originally from Indonesia, both Ino and the band members came to Taiwan hoping for opportunity, education and higher wages. Working here has allowed Ino to pay for his father’s healthcare. A third of what he earns, he sends back to support his family in Indonesia. But many of the island’s 750,000 migrant workers confront a quite different reality.
‘Migrant workers in Taiwan face the risk of forced labour and human trafficking,’ says Lennon Wong of Serve the People Association (SPA), a workers’ rights NGO. Under the thumb of ‘agencies’ which hire them out to employers and take a part of their wages for the privilege, Indonesian and Southeast Asian workers find themselves trapped in conditions which groups like SPA have described as tantamount to ‘modern slavery’. Some end up forced into jobs they never agreed to, pressured into taking contraception, or prevented from leaving Taiwan by agencies that confiscate their passports. Physical and sexual violence is also prevalent, particularly for women. ‘There are hundreds of workers who have been raped during the past years,’ Wong says.
