The Disaster Continues...

Ching-Ju Wu WOW

We arrived in Puli in the early morning hours of September 22, visiting police departments in the area to check up on reports of theft by migrant workers. There were burglaries reported, and the police were busy trying to stop the rumors from spreading. A aboriginal police officer told us, "It's all been caused by the media, there's been no burglary here. Luckily for us there are migrant workers, otherwise the media might have blamed aboriginals for some crime!" Those without power are always used as scapegoats.

We continued our trek onto Tsaotun to find out if there were any workers in need of help because of collapsed factories. Police at the Tsaotun station told us, "There's been no reports of any damage in the Nankang Industrial Park, but the damage at the Lungli Textile plant is very serious." After getting an address, we took off for the plant.

Driving up to the plant, we passed a uphill section of road seriously damaged by the quake. Groups of women workers from the plant were coming down the hill carrying lots of things in their hands. We discovered that they were Thai workers who were to be returned home on that day. A total of 21 were workers were slated to go home. Just as we were about to ask some questions to find out the reason the women were being returned home, a man who looked to be a manager yelled out, "Who are you? What are you doing here? ... Get out of here!" The Thai women passed us by, one of them with tears in her eyes.

We hung around the area for a while, and the man eventually told us that there were a total of 56 workers in the plant, all of whom were Thai and women. Why were they being sent home? "Our plant is just about destroyed, and no one has even come out to look at it. I asked the workers to come into the plant yesterday to help out, but they wouldn't, saying they were afraid! They don't have any sympathy at all. The plant foremen had to help up, how come they weren't afraid? Those workers are no use to us anymore." Even Taiwanese, used to earthquakes, were scared out of their wits by September's tremor, how can you expect workers from Thailand not to be afraid?

We returned to Taipei with heavy hearts.

On September 27, the Central News Agency ran a report saying, "The unemployment rate remains high in Thailand, and the government advises that Thai workers living in Taiwan remain there as 'advance foreign exchange soldiers. Labor brokers also threaten Thai workers with high fees if they want to return home, forcing them to stay Taiwan."

I thought of a song-

"The orphan of Asia cries as the wind blows,

no one wishes to play a fair game with him,

but all want his favorite toy.

Why are you crying, little boy?"

The disaster continues...