By Aaron Yeh / Staff
Image via Ofwbuddy.net.
KAOHSIUNG —Earlier this month, authorities in Kaohsiung City led a multi-day operation against illegal employment that led to 17 arrests, including a migrant worker found hiding inside a commercial freezer at a food-processing plant in Qianzhen District (前鎮區).
OfwBuddy.net reports that a special task force moved in on a frozen-seafood plant after receiving reports of unknown foreign nationals frequently entering and leaving the site to unload and process fish. As officers raided the facility, several migrants attempted to flee. Three Indonesians were detained.
During questioning, the detained workers revealed that one of their colleagues, another Indonesian worker, was hiding inside the plant’s -6°C freezer. Officers located the heavily shivering but unharmed man who’d literally been freezing for nearly 30 minutes. Authorities noted that the freezer could not be opened from the inside, posing a significant risk to his life.
The same workers then told officers that another migrant worker, a man from mainland China, was still hiding inside the freezer. When the task force entered the cold room a second time, they found him wrapped in a plastic sheet, attempting to preserve body heat. He, too, was rescued without injury.
Captain Chao Chih-cheng (趙志成 隊長) of the Kaohsiung City Special Operations Team said employers face fines of up to NT$750,000 under the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) for hiring undocumented workers. He added that investigations into remaining missing workers will continue, and employers will be referred to labor authorities.
Officials said the case illustrates both ongoing enforcement efforts and the dangerous conditions migrant workers often face in unregulated workplaces.
