Mr. Hong Minh Du, the owner of the broker company in Tainan, and his father Hong Khanh Chuong, have raped over 100 Vietnamese women within 3 years, according to numerous victims’ testimonies.
-------------------------------------
On March 23 of 2005, VMWBO received a phone call from a distraught caretaker. Mai told VMWBO that she was forced by her Taiwanese broker to go to the mountains near Tainan and farm for his father. Moreover, the elderly man demanded that she performed sexual acts for him, otherwise his son will not find her work. Mai began to describe how the broker systematically beats, rapes and forces the women under his care. He threatens them with immediate repatriation if they tell anyone about the abuse. Mai refused and resisted his numerous advances and she was severely beaten for it. Mai spoke of many other women who have been raped and who are still living under the broker’s care.

VMWBO immediately arranged a ride for Mai to our office, 350 kilometers away. Once there, Mai helped VMWBO contact another woman, Thanh, who had been repeatedly raped and beaten by the same broker. Thanh has endured these atrocious acts since her arrival in February. VMWBO contacted Thanh and helped her and two other women escape from the broker. The women recounted horror stories of how they were beaten, sometimes with metal objects, and forced to serve as sex slaves at the whim of the broker. Some nights he would take some medicine then rape four, five women, one after another. Other times he would force one woman to watch while he raped another. Or he would force two of them to perform sex acts with each other while he watched.

All the women felt helpless and were terrified of the broker, since he has the power to find them work, as well as to send them on the next plane back to Vietnam. He was also their only contact in Taiwan. All four of the women left Vietnam with a legitimate contract to work in Taiwan, and paid on average US$1300 to a Vietnamese broker in the process. These women are desperate to remain in Taiwan to work since most of them have mortgaged their ancestral home to pay the brokerage fee.
Legally, they should only stay with the broker for a few days to process paperwork and get a health check. In this case however, the broker kept many of these women for days at a time to serve as his sex slaves and to do labor for him and his father. Sometimes he would leave them at other people’s homes to work for a few days, a few weeks or a few months, then collected them as well as their salary. As the case unfolded, two more women came forward and were taken by CLA to a government sponsored shelter run by another broker in Tainan, which houses male migrant workers from other countries and had no interpreter. After a protracted battle, VMWBO finally got permission to shelter them. There are also a number of victims who wrote to VMWBO from Vietnam, recounting the same horror story. Many told the Vietnamese broker what happened upon their return, but he refused to help them.

Since then, the VMWBO has unearthed dozens of other women who have been raped by the same broker. Over 20 have agreed to testify in court about their abuse. They are being represented by a pro bono lawyer via the Legal Aid Foundation. In May, the broker and his father were arrested. A search warrant was also issued at the broker’s company and his home, where many of the abuses took place. Both were eventually released after bail was posted.

In the meantime, VMWBO got all six rape victims living at our shelter to change from caretaker to factory work since they were all traumatized by their experiences working in the broker and other strangers’ home. But the victims had to wait 8 to 10 months before their employment paperwork was finally approved.

Also in February, VMWBO flew two Tainan victims from Vietnam to Taiwan to appear in court. They were raped and forcibly repatriated only after a few months in Taiwan, and faced extreme hardship upon their return. Both are losing their homes due to the debt they incurred to come to Taiwan to work.

Unfortunately, this case, though large in scale, is quite common. Many brokers – and employers and their extended family – routinely enslave migrant workers with no repercussions. Brokers send people back and forth across borders with relative ease. Once a worker complains, s/he is routinely beaten into submission, or when that does not work, forcibly repatriated and silenced. Even when the CLA gets involved, many of the victims are sent back to the brokers, who routinely force them to sign paperwork to drop their charges. Or if they are “lucky”, they are sent to government sponsored shelters where they languish for months waiting for their case to be resolved. These conditions create a big disincentive for victims to come forward. For those who are brave enough to do so, they continue to be victimized through the system.

VMWBO and many local grassroots nonprofit organizations have been advocating for years for the Taiwan government to include caretakers within the Labor Standard Law. This will at least provide them with some protection, such as set hours and minimum living conditions. This law currently applies only to migrant workers in other industries.

The failure to address the abuses at the systemic level has caused innumerable pain and suffering to thousands of migrant workers, as well as their dependants back home.

www.taiwanact.net/article.php3