Taiwan plans fingerprint requirement for migrant workers

Prospective Filipino migrant workers heading for Taiwan may have to prepare to meet a new requirement: being fingerprinted for national security. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said it is considering the new requirement for all migrant workers, noting that bracing against terrorism has become a global trend. "Since anti-terrorism has become a global trend, Taiwan will follow the lead of the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Union in imposing the biometrics requirement for foreign nationals entering the country," the ministry said, according to a report on Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA). It said the requirement is part of a series of new measures in a proposed revision of rules governing foreign applicants for Taiwan resident visas. The report said the new requirement may take effect at the end of this year after it is approved by the Executive Yuan. It will first be applied to migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries to prevent those with criminal records from entering the country using fake identities, it said. The CNA report said Taiwan currently hires around 300,000 migrant workers, mostly from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries in the region. However, the revised rules will also seek to ease current restrictions on certain categories of visa applications to attract talented foreigners to work in Taiwan, and to offer convenience to those who urgently need to visit Taiwan for extraordinary reasons, such as people whose Taiwanese relatives die or are hospitalized. Earlier this year, several Filipino workers planning to work in Taiwan were burdened with tight requirements as Taiwan protested the Philippines' deportation of 14 Taiwanese fraud suspects to Mainland China last Feb. 2. But it eased the restrictions after the Philippines removed two key immigration officials - an act Taiwan took as an apology of sorts. — LBG, GMA News