David on Formosa

I blogged about the problems with human trafficking in Taiwan back in June. David at jujuflop has just posted an analysis of the report.

He makes the conclusion that things in Taiwan aren’t really getting worse. It’s just that the US now has a clearer picture of the situation.

In three years, the tone of the report on Taiwan has changed from “There don’t seem to be any major problems” to “Hmm, there are problems, but the government has assured us they’re working on them” to “There are serious problems, and the government is making the right noises but is totally ineffective in dealing with them”. None of the issues being raised are particularly new so the main thing you can deduce from this is:

Taiwan has always been this bad, it’s just the US Government hasn’t realised it in previous years.

David goes on to say that there is a silver lining in this.

There is some good news hidden in all this: the improved analysis by the US Government is partly due to improved openness and publicity of the issues in Taiwan over the last couple of years. The first step in addressing issues like this has to be public awareness – and the front page news stories in Taiwan over the last year have played a part in improving this.

The next step is to get some political will to improve the situation. As the quote from the CLA above implies, this is still some way off – but pressure from the US with the release of this report can only help.

I am sure it will go some way to helping improve the situation. However, pressure from the US alone is not enough. As long as Taiwan remains outside the UN and is not a full participant in the international community there is little incentive for the government to improve much at all.

Improving the working conditions of migrant workers from Southeast Asia isn’t going to win many votes. The government is always going to face enormous obstacles dealing with illegal immigrants from China unless there is some diplomatic breakthrough. The real key to improving human rights in Taiwan is for Taiwan to be allowed to participate fully and freely in the UN international community.

UPDATE: The Taipei Times carried a strongly worded editorial on this topic on 22 July 2006.