TAIPEI: Taiwan’s Labour Minister Hsu Ming-chun has apologised for saying that the island planned to recruit workers from India’s north-eastern states because “their skin colour and eating habits” are similar to those of the Taiwanese.
The comments, made during a Yahoo TV interview that was uploaded to YouTube on March 1, were criticised by politicians from the ruling and opposition parties in Taiwan. They were also carried by Indian news outlets, with one of them labelling the comments as “racist”.
During the interview, Hsu fielded questions regarding the recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) Taiwan signed with India aimed at tackling the island’s labour shortage.
She said “the quality of India’s migrant workers is very good, and the stability of their workers is also very high”, according to a report by news website Taiwan News.
The initial batch will come from India’s north-eastern states due to similar physical attributes and habits, she said, adding that the recruitment strategy was based on an assessment by the ministry of foreign affairs.
In addition to those similarities, Hsu pointed out that they are skilled in areas such as agriculture and manufacturing.
The MoU states that the number of people and region of recruitment are to be determined by Taiwan, Hsu said.
On March 4, the labour ministry expressed its “sincere apologies over this situation”, CNN reported. The minister’s comments were not meant to discriminate, the ministry said.
The ministry added that “Taiwan respects India’s diverse and rich culture and will use this as a basis in the future to promote labour cooperation between the two sides”.
In a statement on March 5, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also apologised for what it called “less than appropriate” narratives.
At a legislative hearing on March 5 morning, Hsu apologised for her “inaccurate” comments, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
She explained that she had also spoken about the abilities and performance of Indian workers during the interview because she had hoped to highlight them.
Nevertheless, she was condemned by fellow Democratic Progressive Party member Chen Kuan-ting.
In a post on X, he said: “Taiwan values everyone, irrespective of their race, culture, or religion.”
India, the world’s most populous country, has a diverse mix of cultures, ethnic groups and religions.
Indians from the country’s north-east – which borders China, Bangladesh and Myanmar – may appear more east Asian than those from other parts of the country.
Hsu’s remarks come at a time of growing business ties between New Delhi and Taipei.
Taiwan’s Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, has been expanding its operations in India.
Its flagship mobile’s global supply chain is based mainly in China. But severe supply disruptions in China during Covid-19 lockdowns and ongoing diplomatic tensions with the United States have hurt production, and forced Foxconn to diversify its operations.
Taiwan also has a low birth rate that is set to become the world’s lowest by 2035, government projections show.
Taipei currently allows migrant workers from South-East Asian countries such as Indonesia and Thailand to work on the island, according to the labour ministry.
A Bloomberg report in November 2023 suggested Taiwan could hire as many as 100,000 workers from India to work at factories, farms and hospitals.
Hsu had previously denied such reports, but did not provide a potential figure. - The Straits Times/ANN
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