Almost 100 migrant workers from Vietnam were caught gathering at a restaurant in Taoyuan on Sunday, in violation of the central government's COVID-19 regulations on indoor gatherings which are capped at 80, local police said Monday.
Acting on a tip-off received at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday about undocumented migrant workers gathering for a party at a restaurant on Taoying Rd., police went to the restaurant run by a Vietnamese woman surnamed Nguyen, 33, according to Hsieh Ching-hua (???), the head of Dashu Police Station.
Upon their arrival, police heard noise inside though the restaurant's roll-up door was pulled down. Several police officers were assigned to guard the front and back doors to prevent people inside from running away and Nguyen was asked to show up at the restaurant, according to Hsieh.
Directed by Nguyen, restaurant employees then pulled up the front door and police found that in addition to around 40 people on the ground floor, around 50 others had gone into hiding on the top floor.
After checking, police discovered there were 102 people there -- including four restaurant workers and 98 customers, Hsieh said. The restaurant workers and customers are all from Vietnam.
Among the customers were two male undocumented migrant workers and a female migrant worker who had overstayed her visa, who will all be referred to the National Immigration Agency's special task force in Taoyuan for further action.
Police made a list of people involved in the gathering as the restaurant was in an apparent violation of COVID-19 regulations on indoor gatherings by providing service to nearly 100 customers at the same time.
The police report has been handed over to the city's Department of Public Health for further handling, according to Hsieh.
Taiwan earlier this month extended its current Level 2 alert against COVID-19 to at least Sept. 20 and raised the number of people allowed to gather at indoor events to 80 and outside events to 300.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel