Taiwan’s aging population has created a high demand for caregivers, making it a viable destination for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) seeking employment in this field.
The Philippines is missing the boat in deploying a larger number of caretakers\caregiver to Taiwan as the current regulations of the Department of Migrant Workers for caretakers are under the Household Service Workers sector which prohibits the collection of placement fees and other fees by recruitment agencies.
The association of licensed recruitment agencies deploying OFWs to Taiwan has consistently appealed to the DMW to re-classify caretakers as semi-skilled to encourage qualified caretakers from the country to apply for those positions.
However since caretakers are under the HSW sector the salary is limited to $ 400 USD dollars per month compared to the standard salary of caretakers in Taiwan which is 20,000 NT or the equivalent of P 36,000 pesos per month.
Deployment of Filipino caretakers to Taiwan has slowly decreased these past years due to competition from Indonesia and Vietnam offering higher broker’s fee to recruitment agencies based in Taiwan aside from the HSW rule of NO PLACEMENT FEE policy which many recruitment agencies do not want to incur violations of the said rule.
According to migration expert Emmanuel S. Geslani the Philippines is a poor third in caretakers in Taiwan with only 20,000 caretakers. Indonesia has around 170,000 caretakers followed by Vietnam with 40,000 caretakers.
Working as an OFW caregiver in Taiwan involves providing essential care to elderly or disabled individuals. Caregivers are responsible for assisting with daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and feeding, as well as managing medications and monitoring health conditions.
Meanwhile the Indonesians government announced earlier this year that it would prohibit domestic helpers from working abroad from next year especially in the Middle East with the goal of a complete ban by 2029.
According to Indonesian Ministry of Labor statistics, there are more than 230,000 Indonesian workers in Taiwan, 170,000 of whom are caregivers, accounting for 78 percent of all the foreign caregivers in the nation.
This recent development from Indonesia may prove to be providential for our caregivers\ caretakers leaving the field wide open for Filipino caretakers and with this opportunity for the Philippines to deploy more caregivers\caretakers to Taiwan if the DMW will accede to the requests of local Taiwan agencies to place caregivers under the semi-skilled category.
