Mongolian laborers down to 10: CLA

CLA officials said Taiwan included Mongolia as a source of imported foreign labor in early 2004 in an attempt to increase the diversity of labor sources, and that the number of Mongolian laborers in Taiwan that year was 59. The number increased to 79 in 2005 before declining in subsequent years to 22 last year.

The officials attributed the reasons to several factors, including the long distance between Mongolia and Taiwan, the fact that employers are unwilling to pay the high air fares and the problems Mongolian laborers have adapting to the hot and humid Taiwanese weather.

The CLA first opened up to Mongolian laborers in January 2004.

Labor officials said at the time that as sources of foreign laborers are limited, it is easy for the market to be dominated by laborers from select countries.

They said that as the diversification of the resources of foreign laborers is a set policy of the government, the CLA hoped the introduction of laborers will give more options to employers to balance supply and demand.

CLA statistics show that the number of foreign laborers in Taiwan totalled more than 374,000 as of the end of July, with Indonesian laborers accounting for the largest group at 125,000, followed by the Filipino workers at 85,000, Thai workers at 84,000 and Vietnamese at 78,000.

Malaysia, the other of the six countries from which Taiwan imports foreign laborers, has enjoyed economic development in recent years, making laborers from there less willing to work overseas in recent years.

The number of Malaysian workers in Taiwan stood at more than 2,000 at one time, but had declined to just 11 as of the end of July.

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