US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference in Washington on Thursday to release this year’s Report on International Religious Freedom.
Photo: AFP
2022/06/04 03:00
/ Staff writer, with CNA
The US on Thursday recognized Taiwan’s progress in improving migrant workers’ rights to attend religious services, as it released its annual Report on International Religious Freedom.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference that Taiwan, as well as Morocco, Iraq and East Timor, made notable progress in this area.
“In Taiwan, authorities are making it easier to report employers who refuse to give their workers a weekly rest day in order to attend religious services,” Blinken said.
The reported cited Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor as saying that foreign caregivers and household workers whose employers denied them a weekly day of rest to attend religious services could report this to the ministry.
Taiwan’s common labor standards do not cover domestic service workers and caregivers, limiting their ability to attend religious services, the report said.
Echoing last year’s report, it said that the problem was particularly widespread among Taiwan’s approximately 237,000 foreign caregivers and household workers, who are predominately from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Many of them are Muslims or Catholics wanting to attend weekly religious services, it said.
The ministry had called on employers to abide by labor contracts, some of which require employers to allow for a weekly day off, the report said.
The report cited Taiwanese authorities as saying that they view domestic service workers’ inability to attend religious services as part of a broader labor issue, which is addressed by cross-ministry efforts.
The labor ministry has since December 2020 coordinated with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to expand the eligibility of subsidized respite care services to Taiwanese families, it said.
Respite care provides short-term relief for primary caregivers, enabling more migrant caregivers to take leave to attend religious services or conduct other activities without risking their jobs.
Labor ministry data showed that employers utilized 96,000 respite care days in the first six months of last year, compared with 84,000 days in the whole of 2020 and 24,000 in 2019.
However, the report also cited religious leaders in Taiwan as saying that there was still a lack of significant progress on the issue.
They would continue to urge the government to take more action, as well as seek support from employers, the report cited them as saying.
The report also cited Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Pusin Tali as saying that Taiwan’s failure to safeguard migrant workers’ rights, including guaranteeing their ability to attend weekly religious services, might affect the nation’s relations with the migrant workers’ countries of origin.
The report, issued by the US Department of State since 1998, offers an evidence-based review of religious freedom in nearly 200 countries and territories.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
