{"id":6756,"date":"2026-05-21T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/?p=6756"},"modified":"2026-06-10T01:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:48:10","slug":"maryknoll-shelter-in-taiwan-offers-refuge-to-migrant-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.maryknollsociety.org\/magazine\/maryknoll-shelter-in-taiwan-offers-refuge-to-migrant-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryknoll Shelter in Taiwan Offers Refuge to Migrant Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Paul Jeffrey<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cindy Sevilla came to Taiwan in 2023 to work as a caregiver for an elderly woman. At least, that\u2019s what her recruiter told her. She left her two children with her mother-in-law in the Philippines and followed her husband, who had moved to Taiwan a few months earlier to work in a factory. Both planned to send money home for the children\u2019s education and a small house of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there was no elderly woman. No job as a caretaker. Instead, Sevilla\u2019s new employer put her to work<\/a> in a small family business manufacturing rice cakes. She worked from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. six days a week, cooking the family\u2019s dinner after working in their factory. On Sundays, she had to clean the family\u2019s house. Once a month, she got a day off when she could visit her husband, who lived across the city in a factory dormitory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a long year, Sevilla says, she was too tired to continue. She told her employer she wanted to find a different job. Within hours, she got a phone call from her broker, the agent who had arranged her employment. The broker told her to pack her bags. She took Sevilla to another house, saying she would arrange her flight back to the Philippines. Sevilla, who was pressured to sign papers<\/a> she didn\u2019t understand, was given far less severance pay than she expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe broker told me that there was a dorm fee and a broker fee,\u201d Sevilla says, \u201cuntil I finally just gave up and signed.\u201d She continues, \u201cI decided I needed to get out and get some help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a migrant worker<\/a> trapped in a country where they don\u2019t speak the language, getting help can be difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe broker told me I couldn\u2019t leave,\u201d Sevilla says. \u201cBut when I messaged my husband on the phone, he told me to go to church and talk with Father Joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father \u201cJoy\u201d is Maryknoll Father Joyalito Tajonera<\/a>, who founded a shelter at the Tanzi Catholic Church in Taichung for migrants in need of help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cindy
Cindy Sevilla and other residents prepare a meal in the Ugnayan shelter in Taichung, Taiwan. The shelter hosts migrant workers who are forced to leave their jobs because of abuse, are unexpectedly terminated, or who have other legal, labor or health problems. (Paul Jeffrey\/Taiwan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While her case was under investigation, Sevilla moved into the parish shelter. After a couple of weeks, she was called to a hearing. Father Tajonera accompanied her. Government officials determined that she had been illegally employed. They found that she had been paid the caregiver\u2019s minimum salary of $600 a month rather than the factory worker\u2019s minimum of $825 a month plus overtime. Sevilla accepted a $6,500 settlement, which she sent to her mother-in-law in the Philippines. The Ministry of Labor also told Sevilla she was not obligated to leave the country and was free to look for another job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFather Joy told me that if I presented the evidence, I would win the case against my employer, because how they had treated me was illegal,\u201d Sevilla says. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t found Father Joy<\/a>, I\u2019d probably be back in the Philippines now. But he taught me that as an OFW (overseas Filipino worker) I need to be strong. He taught me that I need to know my rights, whether I\u2019m here or in another country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Father Tajonera says the shelter is meant to provide a home to those without one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want migrant workers who are facing difficulties in Taiwan to have a home, a place to rest and to eat, to not worry about all the other issues that they\u2019re facing,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Maryknoll shelter becomes a home away from home for them, a safe haven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shelter, named Ugnayan \u2014 a Filipino word for connection or relationship \u2014 offers refuge to a wide range of migrant workers. Women who become pregnant and consequently lose their jobs find a temporary home there. In Taiwan<\/a>, they receive better medical care for themselves and their babies than in the Philippines, and the babies are doted on at the shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some guests are people who simply fell through the cracks. Last year, the shelter cared for an elderly German man who had grown senile while living in Taiwan but had no family. Immigration officials appealed to Father Tajonera for help. Caring for the man became a project for all the shelter residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others come to Ugnayan for health reasons. Waynelyn Subia survived cervical cancer several years ago, but the cancer reappeared in her lungs in 2023 while she was working as a caregiver. When her employer grew suspicious of her frequent medical appointments, she confessed her condition \u2014 and was promptly fired. Father Tajonera welcomed Subia, who is from the Philippines<\/a>, to the shelter so she could continue receiving care from the excellent Taiwanese health system free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m sick, I can\u2019t send money home to support my three children, but my husband is an OFW in Australia, so we\u2019re surviving,\u201d she says. \u201cThe other people in the shelter take care of me. I feel special here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Subia\u2019s chemotherapy treatments have left her without hair, she wears a hat most of the time. Father Tajonera, who shaves his head, jokes with Subia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Maryknoll
Maryknoll Father Joyalito Tajonera (right) greets people at a meal in the Ugnayan shelter, located in the Tanzi Catholic Church. An average of 30 residents are housed at the shelter, but Father Tajonera says no one is ever turned away. (Paul Jeffrey\/Taiwan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe keeps telling me that bald is beautiful,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other shelters for migrant workers in Taiwan, but Father Tajonera says that Ugnayan is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey live in a community setting, so they\u2019re not alone<\/a>. Everybody helps one another,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople can come anytime without too many questions. Someone says, \u2018I lost my job. I\u2019m sick. I don\u2019t have a home.\u2019 And we say, \u2018Welcome.\u2019 Other issues we\u2019ll deal with later on. This is the only shelter that\u2019s run like a Catholic Worker soup kitchen, where everybody can get in line and have their bread and soup. No questions asked,\u201d Father Tajonera says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the Maryknoll Society provides financial support for the shelter, Father Tajonera doesn\u2019t have to ask the Taiwanese government for funding, as most other migrant shelters do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I applied for funding, I\u2019d have to follow certain rules, and probably half the migrants wouldn\u2019t qualify to be sheltered here,\u201d the priest says. \u201cThey\u2019d have to go back to their employer or broker, and that would defeat the whole purpose. If you\u2019re a victim of abuse<\/a>, you shouldn\u2019t have to go back to your abuser for help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He notes, \u201cA lot of the migrant workers walk away from their job because it\u2019s dirty, it\u2019s dangerous, it\u2019s difficult, and they\u2019re overworked and underpaid. Their salaries or overtime are not paid correctly. So after months and years of suffering, they finally decide they\u2019ve had enough.\u201d But it can take months or even a year for the workers\u2019 cases to be settled, he explains. \u201cThe shelter provides a haven where they can stay until that is all resolved, where they feel safe, where they don\u2019t have to worry about where to sleep and what to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shelter reflects the missioner\u2019s exposure to the Catholic Worker<\/a> in New York City, where he lived for several years before entering the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe spirit of Dorothy Day<\/a> is alive and well here,\u201d Father Tajonera says. \u201cThere are no managers and bosses here. Everybody helps. Everybody becomes a mentor of the newly arrived, and they work together, they learn from one another. The migrants themselves become their own advocates because they learn from their experience and they share that experience with others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Father Tajonera says migrants who stay in the shelter are transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of the migrants think the only option they have is to follow orders, to obey and fall in line. But in the shelter community, there\u2019s no supervisor here to tell them what to do,\u201d he says. \u201cIt works because the management of the shelter<\/a> is up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the shelter is managed largely by those who reside there, bills must be paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery time I pray, I give thanks for all the people who help us<\/a>, the people who support Maryknoll and the Catholic Church. It\u2019s not cheap to rent the building, buy the food, pay the bills and help those who are sick. But Maryknoll and its supporters have been very generous,\u201d Father Tajonera says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What that financial support provides, he says, is more than just a place to stay for migrant workers in crisis. It\u2019s empowerment.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Marivic
Marivic Arevalo, a migrant worker from the Philippines, holds another woman\u2019s baby. Pregnant migrant workers, who often lose housing when they lose employment, are welcomed at the shelter. (Paul Jeffrey\/Taiwan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe emphasize the dignity of the person, the dignity of labor. All the time I speak about the rights of workers, the rights of laborers, the rights of the migrants, the rights of women, and the rights of migrant workers in Taiwan under both local law and international law,\u201d Father Tajonera says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the happiest moments for us is when someone comes in who is broken, but by the time they leave they have recovered a sense of wholeness. The dignity<\/a> of the person is back,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToo often, migrants come in thinking that something is wrong with them. That\u2019s why they were abused or cheated. It was somehow their fault,\u201d he says. \u201cYet by the time they leave, they realize the truth. And they are whole again. They rediscover the joy of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: Father Tajonera meets with a group of factory workers in the Ugnayan shelter. Father Tajonera, who is well-known for his labor advocacy, counsels workers on their rights and responsibilities as foreign workers in Taiwan. (Paul Jeffrey\/Taiwan)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maryknoll Father Joyalito Tajonera and his parish community provide hospitality and advocacy as they welcome vulnerable migrant workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[2833,2837,976,515,2834,147,676,970,2835,2836,2838,2617],"class_list":["post-6756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-catholic-worker","tag-cindy-sevilla","tag-dorothy-day","tag-human-trafficking","tag-labor-rights","tag-maryknoll-father-joyalito-tajonera","tag-migrant-workers","tag-paul-jeffrey","tag-pregnant-women","tag-shelter","tag-taichung-taiwan","tag-tanzi-catholic-church"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaryknoll Shelter in Taiwan Offers Refuge to Migrant Workers - Maryknoll Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maryknoll Shelter in Taiwan Offers Refuge to Migrant Workers - 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