A candidate in a local election in southern Taiwan is being slammed for putting up a poll campaign billboard featuring a “no” symbol superimposed over the Indian national flag and an image of a turbaned man. The billboard has been criticised for racial discrimination and has triggered a debate over immigration policy. Taiwan had in 2024 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India to accept migrant workers.
The 2024 MoU, however, came under criticism from some quarters in Taiwan. The country’s main opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), meanwhile, has stoked fears that “runaway” Indian migrant workers would “imperil women’s safety” in the country.
According to reports from Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) and Taiwan News, the candidate, Lee Hung-yi, a borough warden in Kaohsiung City’s Siaogang District and an independent contender in the upcoming city council elections, put up a billboard featuring a “no” symbol superimposed over the Indian national flag and an image of a turbaned man. Lee stated that the message was intended to express his opposition to Taiwan’s plan to recruit migrant workers from India.
The billboard quickly drew sharp criticism online.
An Indian resident in Taiwan described the billboard as “blatant and direct racial discrimination”. In a social media post cited by CNA, the individual noted that while disagreement over migrant worker policy is understandable, “expressing it in this way really doesn’t seem right”. The post argued that the campaign material appeared to use physical traits and cultural symbols to incite resentment toward a specific group.
“Theres roughly 7,000 Indians – almost all in manufacturing of high-tech things like Realtek, Foxconn, TSMC [in Taiwan]. India is establishing semicon and many chip startup companies are willing to absorb them if they choose to return. A good thing for India,” a person commented on X.
Lee had told CNA last week that he is not opposed to migrant workers in general, but specifically to Taiwan’s plan to admit workers from India. He said the policy lacks sufficient supporting measures and management rules, though he provided no further details.
The advertisement also drew condemnation from local political figures. Wang Yi-heng, head of the New Power Party’s Kaohsiung chapter, was reported as calling Lee’s billboard “utterly ignorant” due to it placing prohibition symbols over both the Indian flag and the turban, which he described as a symbol of “faith and dignity”.
WHAT IS THE INDIA-TAIWAN MIGRANT WORKER SCHEME FACING ATTACKS FROM TAIWAN’S OPPOSITION?
The controversy comes as Taiwan moves ahead with plans to recruit workers from India as part of efforts to address labour shortages in key sectors.
Taiwan and India had signed a memorandum of understanding on migrant labour cooperation in 2024, paving the way for the recruitment of Indian workers in manufacturing, agriculture and caregiving.
According to a report by CNA, Labour Minister Hung Sun-han told the country’s lawmakers that Taiwan could initially admit around 1,000 Indian workers under a pilot phase in 2026 itself, with both governments still working through administrative procedures, document verification and health screening systems.
Officials have said the programme would proceed gradually and remain dependent on labour demand from Taiwanese industries as well as the completion of regulatory safeguards. Taiwan’s Labour Ministry has argued the initiative is necessary to offset workforce shortages caused by demographic decline and an ageing population.
The agreement for admitting Indian workers, however, had come under sustained criticism in Taiwan from members of the opposition KMT, which have been demanding safeguards to prevent workers from “absconding” due to fears that “runaway Indian workers could commit crimes, including rape, and pose a threat to women’s safety”.
According to a report by the Taipei Times, KMT legislator Huang Chien-pin last week cited data from India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) while addressing Taiwan’s legislature. Referring to figures showing 445,256 reported crimes against women in India in 2022, including more than 31,000 rape cases, or an average of 85 per day, Huang argued the statistics raised concerns over admitting Indian migrant workers and called for tighter scrutiny of the programme.
The criticism mises the point of India’s vast geography and Taiwan’s size. Also, the higher numbers are a result of better reporting of crime cases.
The proposed recruitment programme from India has generated mixed reactions in Taiwan, with industry groups supporting broader labour access while critics raising concerns over implementation, oversight and social integration. The Kaohsiung billboard pushed that immigration debate into a racism row.
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