Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) Several Miaoli County officials were detained this week over their alleged involvement in a scheme in which foreign students were duped into coming to Taiwan and then forced to work as cheap labor for local factories.
Universities’ efforts to recruit foreign students outside established programs would be scrutinized more closely, the Ministry of Education said yesterday, after Ugandan students accused Chung Chou University of Science and Technology of using them as laborers.
The ministry said it on Jan. 10 received a complaint from students saying that the university did not live up to what it had promised when recruiting them and instead exploited them as laborers.
Police on Friday last week questioned the university’s Department of Education Promotion director, surnamed Lan (藍), and its vice president, surnamed Chai (柴), the ministry said.
Chai and Lan were suspected of breaching
‘BROKEN PROMISE’: One university official was detained and another released on bail over labor exploitation allegations by students from UgandaBy Wu Po-hsuan, Rachel Lin and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer
An official from the Ministry of Education (MOE, 教育部) recently spoke out about the scandal of a Taiwanese university hosting industry-academia collaboration international programs to lure foreign students into doing cheap labor work, saying that it's important to not over-generalize and think all universities are like that.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) and civic groups on Wednesday called on the Ministry of Education (MOE) to take immediate action to prevent foreign students from being forced to work as cheap labor.
An article published on Monday in The Reporter, a Taipei-based online news outlet, said that 16 Ugandan students enrolled at Chung Chou University of Science and Technology (CCUT) in Changhua County in 2019 worked as factory interns for long hours and low pay.
The students could not refuse to work due to substantial tuition debts, the report said.
The students had been promised scholarships and courses taught in