Published: September 2024
In February 2024, Transparentem alerted over 40 companies about evidence of severe labor abuses affecting migrant workers at nine Taiwanese textile suppliers potentially connected to their supply chains. We urged these companies to verify their connections to these suppliers, address identified abuses, and support reforms to protect migrant workers in Taiwan.
This interim report offers an update on our investigation and company responses as of September 2024. It is intended to alert businesses to human rights risks in Taiwanese manufacturing and encourage due diligence efforts, promote government efforts to require ethical business conduct, and encourage all stakeholders to become involved in solutions.
While improvements are underway at some suppliers and buyer responses are ongoing, we are not naming specific suppliers or buyers at this stage. In almost all cases, the buyers we contacted are not buying materials directly from the investigated suppliers. Instead, the buyers are purchasing from manufacturers who are in turn buying from the investigated suppliers. In other words, the investigated suppliers are beyond tier one.
This report reflects information as of September 18, 2024. A full report, including detailed findings and recommendations, will be released in the coming months.
On September 26, Transparentem sent a letter to the Taiwanese government, signed by twenty-one civil society organizations and individuals, seeking legal and regulatory changes to protect migrant workers in Taiwan.
The civil society letter to the Taiwanese government follows a similar effort coordinated by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), largely in response to Transparentem’s investigation. On September 11, 2024, 50 companies (including companies engaged by Transparentem in relation to this investigation) called on the Taiwanese government to protect migrant workers. See more information here.
The photos included on this website are solely illustrative and do not represent any specific company, person, or group of people discussed on the site.
