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Taichung City, Taiwan – Bernard maintains a low profile.
Going to work in the streets of Taiwan, the 45 -year -old Philippine worker dodges the looks, he often checks his mask to ensure that his appearance is hidden.
To hide his accent, he often speaks in an almost kind.
Often, he rejects invitations to social occasions of his compatriots, worried that a “Judas” among them could inform the authorities.
Hired in one of Taiwan’s many electronics factories, Bernard arrived on the island legally in 2016.
But since June 2024, he has been among the growing population of undocumented workers in Taiwan. He blames his corridor, a private employment agent to which migrants are generally assigned, for his current situation.
Bernard Corridor tried to confiscate his passport, he said, then tried to convince him to resign and resign the compensation payments of his employer.
He refused twice, he said, causing a crack among them.
“They (the runners) only talk to you when they come to collect payments or when they want to deceive you,” said Bernard, who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of repercussions, Al Jazeera.
The runners in Taiwan take a cut of the salaries of their clients and have a significant influence on their labor conditions and perspectives, which makes their relationships prone to abuse.
When Bernard’s contract expired in 2022, he said, his black corridor included it in the blacklist among other employers.
Desperate for supporting his daughter’s education in the Philippines, Bernard left his corridor and decided to overcome his visa to work in strange construction work, he said.
These days, he said, he feels “like a bird in a cage.”
In public, Bernard would not even pronounce the word “undocumented” in any language, just gesturing with the hands he fled.
Taiwan’s undocumented workforce is increasing rapidly.
The number of migrants not counted on the island has doubled in the last four years, reaching 90,000 this January, according to the Ministry of Labor.
Despite the image of Taiwan as one of the rare liberal democracies of the region, a growing number of migrant workers in Southeast Asia lives under the constant threat of deportation and without access to social services.
Taiwan institutionalized his runner system in 1992 in an attempt to rationalize labor recruitment.
The runners influence almost all aspects of the life of a migrant worker, from where they live, to their meals, to the terms of their employment contracts and even how they access public services.
The defenders of the rights of migrants say that it is precisely this level of control that leads to a large number of workers to flee their workplaces.
According to official data, more than a third of all complaints made by migrants to the Ministry of Labor are related to runners.
As of January 2025, Vietnamese represented most of the undocumented in 57,611, followed by Indonesians with 28,363, and Filipinos to 2,750.
Joy Tajonera, a Catholic priest who runs the Ungnayan center, a migrant shelter in the city of Taichung, said the Taiwanese government has adopted a lax approach to the subject.
“The system allows runners to be able to use for the disadvantage of migrants,” Tajonera told Al Jazeera.
“Meanwhile, employers play innocent.”
The runners generally charge migrants a monthly service rate from $ 50 to $ 60, and also collect rates for employment transfers, hospital insurance, license and most of the necessary documentation to work in Taiwan.
In some cases, they impose age limits for certain works.
Tajonera said that many undocumented workers can win more without a corridor, “but then loses all social protections and health insurance. It is not that they want to flee. It is their situation, they cannot take it anymore.”
‘Uncompted and stupid’
Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor said in a statement that the increase in undocumented migrants was driven by the interruption related to pandemic to deportations.
He said that he has taken several measures to improve the conditions for the work of migrants, including the elevation of the minimum wage, the realization of regular inspections of the recruitment agencies, the introduction of a new suspension mechanism for the agencies with high rates of escaping workers and encouraging the countries of labor courses to reduce the rates of the agencies.
“Through the prior employment orientation for industrial migrant workers and unique orientation sessions for household caregivers, the Ministry aims to improve workers’ awareness about legal requirements, inform them about the risks and consequences of disappearing and ensuring that employers comply with their management responsibilities,” said the ministry.
However, since last year, the Taiwanese government has also increased maximum fines for migrants trapped in excess of their visas of $ 330 to $ 1,657.
Lennon Ying-Da Wang, director of the public migrant shelter, served the People Association, described the government’s movement to increase “shameless and stupid” sanctions.
“Instead of addressing the reasons to escape, this will only prevent people from surrendering,” he told Al Jazeera.
Wang said that the lack of protections, particularly for those who work in child care and fishing, is the key reason why many migrants escape from their workplaces.
No industry is subject to the minimum monthly salary of Taiwan of $ 944, according to the Taiwan Labor Standards Law.
Wang said that migrants in practice often receive half of that amount less deductions from the runners.
“Migrants just want a decent salary,” Wang said. “But there is a tacit rule among some runners not to hire migrant workers who request shelter help. That forces them to flee.”
Despite their sympathies, Wang, as director of a state -funded installation, cannot pick up migrants who have escaped from their employers, since they are subject to deportation.
On a quiet and indescribable path to the edge of Taipei is house harmony, an NGO that serves unavailable mothers and children.
While women and children remain in Harmony Home cannot be deported for humanitarian reasons, the State is not obliged to assume the costs of their care or medical needs.
Home Home, who has taken in more than 1,600 children in the last two decades, has recently seen a rescue in minors who are going through their doors, said founder Nicole Yang.
“Last year, we had about 110 new children. In April of this year, we already have 140,” Yang told Al Jazeera.
“We also take care of another 300 living at home while their mother works.”
Li-Chuan Liuhuang, a labor expert at Chung Cheng National University, said that while the runner system will be difficult to “uproot immediately”, the government could improve the supervision of “make the recruitment procedure and cost structure more transparent.”
In Lishan, a mountainous area of Taichung, hundreds of undocumented Southeast Asia collect peaches, pears and cabbage for local landowners. The presence of fugitive migrants, many of whom fled from fishing drags, is not only tolerated but is trusted in the harvest.
Liuhuang said that he would like to see that such migrants are allowed to work on farms with adequate labor protections, but believes that this would not be easy to accept for the public.
“The government will have to commit more efforts for this type of dialogue,” he told Al Jazeera.
Mary, who asked to use a pseudonym, said she escaped her work as a child care worker to work illegally on several mountain farms after frustrating himself by winning less than half of the minimum wage and that her complaints are ignored by her corridor.
Sitting next to a cabbage patch, Mary, 46, said she always felt anxious with the city police.
But in Lishan, the rules are different, he said, since the owners have an unwritten agreement with the authorities on the fugitives.
“There is no way for the boss to have no connections with the police. He always knows when they come and tells us not to leave,” he told Al Jazeera.
Even so, there is no guarantee of avoiding abuse in the mountains.
After harvesting, employers sometimes retain payments, threatening anyone who complains with deportation, Mary said.
“If I complain that the boss does not give me the salary, they will inform me. Who will help me?” She said.
