A new agreement between Taiwanese seafood associations and Indonesian labor unions will take effect this month. Significantly, one of the provisions of the agreement is that Wifi will be implemented on fishing vessels...
Civil society groups held a press conference in front of the Taipei Fish Market late last month to call for wi-fi access for migrant fishermen. Participant groups included the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Stella Maris Kaohsiung, Global Labor Justice - International Labor Rights Forum, the Humanity Research Consultancy, and Fospi Donggang Pingtung. Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih of the NPP was also present and DPP legislator Hung Sun-han was scheduled to attend but was later unable to make it. According to these groups, this press conference was more than half a year in planning...
Taiwanese seafood was again included in the US’ "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor", released in late September. The results of the report, then, continue Taiwanese seafood being placed on the list for the first time in 2020, which is an annual report released by the US Department of Labor...
Eight Indonesian sailors have been stranded on a ship since February in the Kaohsiung Port. The eight sailors have not been allowed to enter Taiwan due to COVID-19 measures and have not received pay for over six months...
The Fisheries Agency has announced that it intends to recruit 79 inspectors, as part of an initiative to increase the number of inspections carried out of migrant fishing vessels conducting deep sea fishing. This takes place, then, as part of an attempt to improve the labor conditions for migrant fishermen. The labor inspectors will primarily work in Pingtung, Kaohsiung, and Yilan...
For the twenty-first episode of Radio New Bloom, we present a recording of our event from last year on December 15, 2021 with Dr. Bonny Ling. The event discussed the crucial place that Taiwan plays in global supply chains, whether in terms of semiconductors—of which Taiwan produces over half the global supply—or its fishing fleet—with Taiwan’s distant water fishing fleet ranked as the second-largest in the world. Yet Taiwan's supply chains are highly dependent on migrant labor, as in the use of migrant fishermen on Taiwan’s near and distant waters fishing fleet, as well as migrant workers in factories for semiconductor manufacturing lines. The talk, then, sought to discuss the various levers possible to push for reform regarding this very pressing issue...
105 Indonesian sailors returned home by plane after close to half a year of being stranded at sea on August 21st. The sailors were unable to enter Taiwan because of border restrictions that prevent merchant vessels registered to a different country from docking in Taiwan, only allowing ships owned by Taiwanese nationals and registered to Taiwan to dock. Likewise, maritime conventions dictate that it is the responsibility of the owner of a vessel, the nation to which the vessel is registered, and the nation to which the sailors come from to provide for repatriations...
Two recent incidents highlight the dangers facing migrant workers in Taiwan, pointing to lax legal regulation and how that has resulted in dangerous and inhumane working conditions for migrant workers...
Efforts by the European Union, specifically under its illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing regulations in 2015, have brought a sharp focus on the employment conditions on Taiwanese fishing vessels and the climate of illegality that enables unsustainable fishing and labor abuses. This has shone a harsh light on the labor exploitation of migrants working on fishing vessels with a connection to Taiwan...
