How Open Is Taiwan?

Taiwan is the only ‘open’ society in all of Asia, according to the 2020 annual report of South Africa-based human rights non-governmental organization Civicus, which assesses civic freedoms such as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. This is the latest plaudit Taiwan has received for its civil liberties, bolstering an admirable human rights reputation. But while Taiwan is indeed quite open in terms of civic freedoms, Taiwan is not very ‘open’ in other aspects.

Taiwan’s government, under President Tsai Ing-wen, has put a lot of emphasis on human rights in its public announcements as well as certain areas like transitional justice, for victims of the martial law era, and same-sex marriage, which Taiwan is the first Asian nation to allow. While this is admirable, Taiwan’s society is still quite restrictive for certain segments such as refugees, foreign migrant workers, and prospective citizens who wish to keep their original citizenship.

In the case of refugees, recent events in Hong Kong and China have brought this to the fore. In the aftermath of the Hong Kong protests last year, hundreds of Hong Kongers made their way to Taiwan to seek refuge from protest-related persecution and arrests. This came as President Tsai made the protests a major part of her re-election platform and expressed support for the protesters. While the Hong Kong asylum-seekers have been allowed to stay in Taiwan, they have not been provided with official aid, thus relying on religious and non-governmental organizations for assistance.

Meanwhile, a number of Chinese dissidents have also made their way to Taiwan over the past few years to seek asylum from the Communist regime. But without being granted asylum or any official support, several of these dissidents have had to travel to other countries to seek asylum, or sadly, return to China and face persecution.

The reason for Taiwan’s lack of help for refugees is that Taiwan lacks an official refugee policy. As Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations, it is not subject to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which regulates the rights of refugees and the obligations of states to help them. Taiwan has attempted to implement its own refugee law but the lack of progress is disappointing. A draft act was put forward in 2016, but has been held up since in the legislature despite passing the review stage. In fact, earlier versions had been sent to the legislature as early as 2005 but also were unable to progress.

There are also security concerns over potential Chinese spies, as well as a refugee influx overwhelming Taiwan. However, it could be argued that the lack of land borders and its small size mean Taiwan can control who arrives on its shores. A genuine humanitarian spirit means refugees should be accepted and helped by the authorities. Although Taiwan’s neighbors such as South Korea and Japan also take in very few refugees, neither is held up as a human rights haven in the same way as Taiwan.

Migrant workers are treated unequally

There is a huge group of people living and working in Taiwan that also does not enjoy full rights and liberties. Over 700,000 migrant workers from Southeast Asia contribute to Taiwan’s economy and society, working in manual labor and hazardous jobs that most Taiwanese shun. These include factory labor, crewing fishing boats, and taking care of seniors.

These blue-collar migrant workers differ from other foreigners in Taiwan, many of whom work in tutoring centers, offices and start-ups, and who may qualify for permanent residency after five years of living in Taiwan. Blue-collar migrant workers cannot do this and are even banned from working in Taiwan beyond a certain number of years. Some of these workers, such as caregivers, are not covered under the Labor Standards Act, meaning they are not eligible for overtime, severance pay, occupational injury compensation or retirement benefits.

Conditions are even worse for those working on Taiwan’s fishing boats, which form the world’s second-largest fleet after China’s, and sail all over the world. Foreign crew have been subjected to horrific abuse including beatings, withholding of pay, and trafficking. The problem is so widespread that in September the US placed fish caught by Taiwan’s fishing fleet on a list of forced labor products.

Taiwan has claimed that improvements are being made to fishing crews’ working conditions such as a trial project to install wireless internet on fishing boats and the setting up of rest facilities at several fishing ports. While this is good, the authorities should also consider implementing stronger measures like more stringent boat inspections and harsher punitive measures.

Double standards on dual nationality

Given Taiwan’s declining birth rate, one would think that the authorities would welcome more immigration, which would involve revising current immigration policies. For example, restrictions on holding dual citizenship make getting Taiwanese citizenship very unattractive. As a result, there are longtime residents who work, raise families, and even run businesses in Taiwan, but choose not to apply to be naturalized since this would require giving up their original citizenship.

While the barrier was lowered in December 2016 to allow more foreigners to be eligible without revoking their original citizenship, this is still restrictive for the majority of those who are not ‘high-level professionals’ in specific categories, meaning that only a very small number of foreigners—171 as of December 29, 2020—has taken up this offer.

This is not to say that foreign-born residents don’t enjoy a lot of rights and freedoms in Taiwan, but they are not able to vote, are largely ineligible for subsidy schemes, and in many cases, experience serious barriers in accessing some banking services such as applying for credit cards.

Taiwan is not the only place that requires naturalization applicants to revoke their original citizenship as countries like Japan, Singapore and the Netherlands also do so. But these countries also ban dual citizenship for their own citizens, while Taiwan allows Taiwanese to retain their own citizenship while holding another country’s passport. So in this, Taiwan stands as one of the few places in the world that maintains one-sided dual citizenship rules.

So is Taiwan truly an open nation? For people lucky enough to be born Taiwanese, yes, but for others such as migrant workers toiling on its shores, foreign-born residents who wish to become Taiwanese citizens while retaining their home nation’s citizenship, and refugees hoping for asylum, the answer seems to be an emphatic no.

(Cover photo by Vernon Raineil Cenzon on Unsplash)