India and Taiwan must ensure migrant worker safety, dignity, and mutual trust amid growing bilateral cooperation.
India have been sending its citizens as workers around the world. Be it West Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. Most of these workers come from all walks of life in India, and they have been largely grouped into blue- and white-collar workers depending on the types of jobs they do. Some countries need workers from India due to several reasons. Lower wages, a consistent supply of labour, and working in place on jobs that their home-country citizens won’t do, a lower birth rate to replace the working-class jobs, etc. One such agreement India had made was with Taiwan in 2024. Through this agreement, both sides agreed on a gradual introduction of Indian workers to Taiwan to support the labour-intensive industries which require people to work on.
Since then, there have been multiple concerns raised in Taiwanese society. For instance, the then Labour minister, Hsu Ming-chuan, commented that Taiwan will bring only workers from the Northeast part of India, due to ‘similar skin colour and dietary habits to Taiwanese people’. Another significantly smaller section of the society protested outside of the President’s Office in 2023, with a slogan, “守護民主台灣大遊行 123別印來 (A Great Protest of Protecting Taiwan: 123 Don’t Come In)” and put the concerns that it will be “unsafe for Taiwanese women” concerning sexual crimes. The Taiwanese government immediately responded to such concerns. First, the Minister apologised for the distasteful comments made by the former minister, and also mentioned that several fake news stories have been propagated by China-based disinformation groups. However, since it was in the early stage of program discussions on worker mobility, not much news came about it.
Moving ahead on 9 April 2026, the current Labour minister Hung Sung-han mentioned that the government is ready to have 1000 Indian workers by the end of the year in Taiwan. Out of which 50 will be hired directly by the Taiwan government, and the rest will be through other methods. Followed by the Minister’s remarks, several social media channels again showed their displeasure with having Indian workers in Taiwan. Additionally, a public petition has started against having Indian workers in Taiwan. As per the rules, the government is bound to respond to it if the voters reach 5000 in number. As of this writing, it had reached 40,000 signatures. Some of the politicians have also voiced their support for not accepting Indian workers in Taiwan. It can be interpreted as appeasing a certain section of the voting population for the upcoming local elections in November.
Since India is going to send its citizens to Taiwan to work, it also needs to closely study about the migrant workers (mostly from Southeast Asian countries) in Taiwan, who number around 8,00,000. A few documentaries, such as Miles to Go Before I Sleep, have widely depicted on how workers get recruited by their brokers and how they get treated at their workplaces. There have been multiple cases of injuries and deaths of the migrant workers due to cramped workplace and living conditions. As recently as in 2026, a case was cracked by Taiwan’s National Immigration Agency, that an illegal brokerage firm had duped nearly 100 Thai workers to work in a strawberry farm for 16 hours per day at a much lower than the legal minimum wage of Taiwan.
In such scenarios, what policy approach does Indian and Taiwan government can take to secure the migrant workers’ lives in Taiwan? First and foremost is to ensure that the hiring of the workers occurs through legal broker firms and directly, which have been jointly approved and vetted. This will remove any misinformation, as well as prevent getting duped by illegal firms. Second, is to have the initial training for the workers who will be sent to Taiwan on a pilot project, which can lead to cultural understanding of the place of work, such as eating habits, language, how to interact in day-to-day life and any sort which can create misunderstanding. Thirdly, is having a proper channel to address the grievances if any arise, to the workers or even the employers, which is open and fair to both sides. Fourthly, having good living and working conditions so that no such basic requirements for objections can occur.
India and Taiwan are now more closer than ever. Taiwan’s support to India during the second wave of COVID-19 by providing emergency medical aid. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also responded to the wishes of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te’s wishes on the X platform (formerly Twitter), marking the first high-level interaction. Prime Minister Modi has also offered his condolences for the loss of lives due to a natural calamity in Taiwan. India had also given its third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan, to Young Liu, Taiwan’s Foxconn chairman, marking a new height of the growing partnership. Similarly, Taiwan have voiced its support for India’s fight against terrorism and its right to respond to such nefarious intentions. There have been a growing number of Indian students who have been receiving scholarships from Taiwan universities and the government to conduct high-level research and study. Both sides also have jointly partnered in the area of space cooperation, focusing on jointly developing satellites, launch vehicles and artificial intelligence space applications.
In the context, the India Taipei Association (ITA) in Taipei Director General Ninad Deshpande recently highlighted in his work on the labor code reforms in India which helped the local Taiwanese audiences to understand the new rules in India in terms of hiring of the workers, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) reflected the strong commitment towards equality and disregarded any discriminatory remarks made towards Indians.
It would be prudent for both sides to carefully examine the newly formed partnership with migrant workers. People of Indian origin have about 34 million people living abroad, spreading across continents, marking one of the highest diaspora populations in the world. Therefore, both India and Taiwan need to make sure that negativity finds no place in the era of cooperation and partnership.
Dr Manoj Kumar Panigrahi is an Associate Professor of Taiwan Studies at Jindal School of International Affairs. He is currently a MOFA 2026 Fellow in National Chengchi University.
