Indonesian students were reportedly forced to work four days a week in a Taiwanese contact lens factory. Stock photo: Shutterstock
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2180460/indonesia-halts-taiwan-internship-scheme-after-students Southeast Asia
Indonesia halts Taiwan internship scheme, after students were ‘forced to work in factories and eat pork’
- Reports say hundreds of Indonesian students were only allowed two days of classes per week – but spent four days packing contact lenses instead
A woman works in a textile factory in this file photo: Photo: EPA
Indonesia decided late on Wednesday to suspend sending students to Taiwan for an internship programme following news reports that hundreds of Indonesian students who took part were forced to be manual labourers in factories on the island.
Taiwanese media quoted legislator Ko Chih-en as revealing over the weekend that in one case, the Indonesian students were only allowed to go to class two days a week and had one day of rest, while working the remaining four days at a factory, where they packaged 30,000 contact lenses for 10 hours per shift.
The students, according to Ko, who is a legislator from Kuomintang, or the opposition Nationalist Party of China, worked from 7.30am to 7.30pm with only a two-hour break, while they stood for 10 hours a day packaging the contact lenses.
And although most of the Indonesian students are Muslims, their meals contained pork chops.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said in a press statement that the Indonesian Trade Office in Taipei “has asked clarification and coordinated with local authorities to investigate the implementation of” the so-called study-internship scheme that has been ongoing since 2017.
Suspension over the recruitment and sending of students under such a scheme will take place “until a better management is agreed,” the spokesman said without elaborating.
The trade office, according to Nasir, has also requested the local authorities take necessary action to protect the interest and safety of the Indonesian students participating in the internship program.
According to Nasir, there are about 6,000 Indonesian students currently studying in Taiwan, with about 1,000 of them joining the study-internship scheme in universities in Taiwan for the 2017-2018 period.