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Updated Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:27 am TWN, The China Post news staff



	Three Vietnamese caretakers are shown with their faces covered during a news conference held at the Legal Affairs Foundation yesterday morning. Through translation provided by a pastor, the women described their abusive working conditions at an elderly care facility in Taipei County, which prompted activists to condemn their job as slave labor. (Akie Ang, The China Post) Enlarge Photo

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Vietnam caretakers treated like slave laborers: activists

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Five foreign caretakers yesterday revealed abusive working conditions and harrowing treatment by their employer in Taipei County prompting human rights group to point to potential people trafficking-related violations, local media reported yesterday.

The Vietnamese workers, females in their 20s, accompanied by representatives from the Legal Aid Foundation (LAF), described 16-hour work days with no overtime pay and no right to leave the premises of Home Go Elderly Care located in Banciao on their own, said the United Evening News.

Not only were they not given their own living quarters, but they were also locked in with the residents in the care center, to which only Taiwanese employees were given keys, wrote the paper, before citing fire hazard concerns.

Each foreign worker was forced to provide care to as many as 40 residents every evening, sometimes being asked to tie them up with ropes when the facility is short on staff, the caregivers also divulged.

They added that they would be scolded if they did not tightly fasten the residents.

Passports were also confiscated, mobile phones were off limits, and salaries were held back, disclosed the women, who were also in charge of cleaning and maintenance of the center.

LAF and several other labor associations blasted Home Go for infringing upon the Human Trafficking Prevention Act and addressed the fine line between the women's substandard working conditions and slave labor.

The humanitarian groups also criticized the Labor Affairs Bureau and Foreign Affairs Police under Taipei County for siding with employers and their alleged intention to treat the case as a wage dispute.

Activists noted that the employers failed to safeguard the wellbeing of its hired help, and in doing so presented a danger to its residents.

Under constant fear of their employers, the Vietnamese women sought help from a pastor, surnamed Ruan, via text messaging.

According to the report, Home Go oversees five licensed facilities that provide elderly care and assisted living services to 158 residents through 31 caregivers, including labor imported from abroad.

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