Taiwan uses a labor brokerage system in which the tasks of recruiting, placing, managing, and housing foreign workers is outsourced to third-party, private intermediaries. Labor brokers in Taiwan service a range of blue-collar industries, from domestic care to manufacturing. Engendered by Taiwan’s informal and formal forays into guest worker arrangements in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the labor brokerage system has proliferated over the last few decades. As it stands, most blue-collar migrant workers have no option to enter Taiwan unless through brokerage agencies and thus are subjected to dual control by both brokers and employers. Surging demand in response to Taiwan’s labor shortages for foreign workers in industries marked by the 3Ds (“dirty, dangerous, and difficult”) have increased pressure on labor intermediaries, spawning a rise in both legal and illegal brokerage firms.
Despite the presence of ‘legal’ brokers, the overall regulations surrounding the labor brokerage system are still inadequate when compared to other employment spheres. Instated in 1992, Taiwan’s Employment Services Law formalized the recruitment of foreign workers, featuring regulations around private and public employment service (brokerage) agencies. However, certain regulations within this law end up harming workers. Specifically, Articles 53 and 59 in Taiwan’s Employment Services Law, tightly restrict the movement of foreign workers amongst employers, make it difficult for workers to seek higher compensation or leave subpar conditions. New Bloom Magazine (2019) points out how the such restrictions on foreign workers’ mobility advantages the oversight held by brokers [1]. Unauthorized resignation may result in contractual penalties, loss of work authorization, or forced repatriation, effectively restricting workers’ freedom of employment. This institutional arrangement severely weakens migrant workers’ bargaining power and places them at high risk of forced labor. While conducive for employers, who are spared mountains of administrative paperwork, the labor brokerage system has generated mounting systemic abuses.
Brokers who act illegally take advantage of migrants who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of Taiwanese employment law, and susceptible to scams. Currently, the Employment Service Act in Taiwan mandates that brokers can only issue placement and registration fees to employers, not employees. It also notes that monthly fees for foreign workers must be capped at NT $1,800 in their first year, and must decrease in the following years. According to the Taiwan International Workers Association (TIWA), migrant workers often incur heavy debts even before arriving in Taiwan due to high brokerage fees. Oftentimes, the fees (sometimes even reaching US$6,600) are impossible to pay off without taking out loans, leaving many migrant workers trapped in what is arguably debt bondage, which the International Labor Organization identifies as an indicator of forced labor [2]. Sometimes brokers will invent fake fees for workers to pay. Recently, a labor broker was fined in December 2025 for having illegally charged job-placement fees to workers, stealing around NT$1 million in total from vulnerable migrants (Taipei Times, 2026). Job-placement fees are illegal in Taiwan. Via legal and illegal means, migrant workers in Taiwan must endure varying levels of exploitation at the hands of the brokerage system.
The glaring structural risks associated with the labor brokerage system were brought to the fore with the scandal surrounding Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a major bicycle manufacturer in Taiwan [3]. Due to multiple accounts of migrant worker debt, wage withholding, and restrictions on freedom of movement, U.S. authorities observed information regarding working conditions at Giant reasonably indicated forced labor. Following the publication of such incriminating evidence, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Withhold Release Order against all products manufactured by Giant. Although Giant later adopted a zero-brokerage-fee policy, the case underscores the entrenched low-wage structure, power asymmetries, and human rights risks inherent in Taiwan’s brokerage system, demonstrating the urgent need for systemic reform.
[1] Ministry of Labor Forum on Labor Brokers Criticized by Migrant Workers’ Groups
[2] EDITORIAL: Migrant labor rules reform urgent
[3] CBP issues Withhold Release Order on Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd.