by Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: TimChen/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
FISHERIES ASSOCIATIONS and shipowners in Pingtung and Kaohsiung have been criticized after Typhoon Krathom hit Taiwan. Namely, a number of Indonesian migrant fishermen were ordered by shipowners to stay onboard ships during the typhoon in order to prevent the mooring lines that connect ships to the harbor from breaking, and the ships from drifting out to sea as a result. This occurred despite heavy wind and rain advisories, which resulted in the Kaohsiung county government ordering that ships under 100 tonnes be evacuated. This mostly took place in Donggang Township in Pingtung and Cijin District in Kaohsiung.
Storm conditions in southern Taiwan were severe during Typhoon Krathom, with two dead, one missing, 490 injured, and tens of thousands evacuated. Nevertheless, for many shipowners, this did not warrant evacuating fishermen. This reportedly included fishermen from both Taiwan’s distant water and near water fishing fleets.
Shipowners that have violated the evacuation order will be fined 50,000 NT to 250,000 NT, according to the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act, in that shipowners are legally required to take fishermen to shelters if ordered to by the county government. But the response from the Fisheries Agency (FA) has been tepid, with the FA stating that there were extenuating circumstances that it is looking into.
The FA was aware of migrant fishermen remaining on vessels and allowed this to happen after contacting the Taiwan Tuna Longline Association and other fisheries associations, claiming that Taiwanese shipowners had also remained on vessels to prevent mooring lines from breaking. More generally, migrant fishermen advocates have pointed to how while laws for dealing with natural disasters are on the books, they are not enforced by the FA, which instead takes the side of shipowners.
The actions of shipowners and fisheries associations during Typhoon Krathom continues the flagrant disregard of human rights committed by Taiwanese shipowners. Migrant fishermen carry out work under conditions that have been labeled modern slavery, seeing as despite working twenty or more hours a day, they sometimes do not receive pay and face the threat of physical violence on the high seas. Deepwater fishing vessels often do not return to shore for years at a time.
The Cijin Ferry Pier. Photo credit: Taiwan Junior/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 3.0
As the treatment of migrant fishermen during the typhoon goes to show, for shipowners, migrant workers may not be treated as human, but merely as equipment–as though they can go on laboring without rest endlessly, and be put in dangerous conditions for the sake of preventing ship damage.
In the case of Typhoon Krathom, migrant fishermen were able to raise the alarm about their being confined to ships during the storm. Yet migrant workers are often unable to do so because of lacking wi-fi access at sea.
For one, one notes the lack of wi-fi access for many migrant fishermen cuts them off from friends and family for months at a time. Such isolation contributes to the stresses of work under conditions that are already harsh and hazardous and make it difficult to verify if their families have been paid.
But migrant workers are also often unable to report labor abuses without wi-fi access, particularly if they do not return to shore for long periods. This has sometimes been framed as denying migrant workers the right to organize that they otherwise should have. Specifically, although migrant workers in Taiwan are allowed to organize labor unions, seeing as they are at sea for months at a time, migrant fishermen are usually unable to contact their labor unions in the event of labor abuses without wi-fi access. As such, the right to organize has been criticized as just for show without wi-fi access by migrant worker advocates.
Migrant worker advocates currently call for allowing migrant fishermen to have wifi access. But according to the FA, while there are more than 2,000 vessels in Taiwan’s fishing fleet, only 116 have wi-fi. Of those, only 92 give wi-fi access to members of the crew, rather than just the captain.
Even if Typhoon Krathom proves a case in which migrant fishermen were able to raise the alert about conditions they faced, the incident scratches the surface of a much deeper, systematic issue. Yet it is to be seen if any action is taken on the matter.