The foreign ministry says that a recent report by the US State Department shows Taiwan is successfully defending its residents’ religious freedom. The report, entitled “2020 Report on International Religious Freedom”, came out on Wednesday.
The ministry says the report highlights Taiwan’s successes at several points. Those include references to Taiwan’s continuing construction of prayer spaces for Muslims in public places. The report also notes then Vice President-elect William Lai’s visit to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Prayer Breakfast. It also highlights Foreign Minister Joseph Wu’s address to attendees at November’s 2020 Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief.
The foreign ministry says Taiwan is ready to work with like-minded democracies such as the US in order to defend religious freedom against the threat of authoritarianism.
However, the report is not resoundingly positive. It notes that Taiwan’s domestic service workers are not covered by labor laws and therefore not guaranteed a weekly rest day. The report says that for this reason, many domestic workers cannot attend religious services. It says this is a “salient” problem among the country’s approximately 253,000 foreign caregivers and household workers, who are predominantly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
The report notes the response of Pusin Tali, Taiwan’s Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom. Tali says it is brokers, not employers, who are denying migrant domestic workers the right to attend religious services. He says one solution is for workers to use government brokerage services.
In response to those sections of the report, the foreign ministry says it will refer the report’s suggestions to relevant government agencies. It says it will then follow up with a report back to US authorities.