Taiwan seen to recruit more Pinoy caregivers

MANILA, Philippines - Local recruiters yesterday projected a surge in the deployment of Filipino caregivers in Taiwan with the ballooning population of senior citizens there.

Jackson Gan, Pilipino Manpower Agencies Accredited to Taiwan (PILMAT) president, said Taiwan has already passed a law extending the stay of foreign workers, including Filipino workers.

He said Taiwan has one of the fastest growing number of senior citizens that would require the services of Filipino caregivers.

Gan said the new policy allows thousands of Filipinos caregivers to extend their stay in Taiwan, noting that senior citizens have reached 22 million, comprising 10 percent of Taiwan’s population.

In 2010, the country deployed 6,184 caregivers to Taiwan, from only 5,942 in 2009.

Meanwhile, Gan said, the growing economic recession in Europe has cut down imports of electronic goods from Taiwan but companies there already adopted flexible time schedule to prevent loss of jobs among foreign workers.

As this developed, a group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East urged the government to “seriously and honestly” implement the new “offloading” guidelines.

Various OFW groups alleged that many Filipinos working abroad and their kin were forced to shell out money after some alleged immigration officials extort from them in exchange for allowing them to proceed with their flight to Middle East countries.

According to Migrante, the new guidelines are aimed to put tighter border control targeting the so- called “tourist workers,” those who are going out of the country using tourist or visit visa, instead of the normal work visa, as entry visa.