Taiwan

Background

Taiwan as a major semiconductor producer but with an ageing society is the home to 3300+ employment agencies and 873,000 migrant workers who mostly come from Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Said Taiwan’s Ministry of Labour, demand for workers in Taiwan for manufacturing, construction, agriculture and other industries has continued to expand which Taiwan is unable to fulfil itself, so demand for migrant workers has increased year by year. However, concerns have arisen regarding the legality of some of these agencies, with suspicions of dubious relationships among agencies themselves. This complex landscape underscores the importance of exploring the status and operations of employment agencies in Taiwan. Knowing the license or legitimacy of an agency is crucial to guarantee a safer workplace for the migrant workers, as it directly impacts their rights, protections, and overall well-being within the city ^[1].

Results

The 2026 scan covered 3,375 employment agencies in Taiwan.

• 1,117 agencies (33.10%) share the same bounding address with another agency, over 15,653 links.
  • Same bounding address between agencies means that agencies map to the same location, in practice the same building, and their relationship might be suspicious as they might be owned by the same entity who tries to “spread risk” over multiple agencies in case some get shut down due to illegal practices.
• 499 agencies (14.79%) share the same phone number with another agency, over 1,789 links.
  • Phone number sharing between agencies is highly suspicious as it indicates that an agency owner is trying to “spread the risk” over multiple agencies in case some get shut down due to illegal practices.
• 538 agencies (15.94%) share the exact same address with another agency, over 329 links.

Agency Visualizer

Using publicly scraped data, the Agency Visualizer tool illustrates suspicious relationships between employment agencies. The visualizer displays the following relationships:

Same Address

Represents two entities located in the same building, on the same floor and in the same room.

Bounding Address

Represents two entities that map to the same spot, in practice the same building. Their geocoded locations sit within about a metre of each other.

Telephone

Represents two entities sharing the same phone number.

There is one extra feature in the visualizer, which is:

Agencies With No Relationships

Displays the agencies that don’t have any relationships with another agencies.

Agency Search

The Agency Search tool provides a more detailed view of each employment agency’s information, including a textual view of the relationships displayed in the Agency Visualizer.