Taiwan: deep-sea vessels singled out for mistreatment of migrant sailors
Fisherman sorting nets in eastern Taiwan, September 26, 2016 (Image illustration).
© AFP - SAM YEH
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Taiwan, an archipelago located off the coast of China, is the second country in the world in terms of the number of deep-sea fishing boats, the deep-sea.
These ships, which can spend several months at sea, mainly hire poor migrant workers from Southeast Asia.
It is a very lucrative industry.
But since last year, Taiwan has come under fire for repeated human rights abuses on these fishing vessels.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in Taiwan
,
Adrien Simorre
Since his return to Taiwan, Jaka * has never ceased to have nightmares.
The 38-year-old Filipino national was until last year a fisherman on a trawler led by a Taiwanese captain.
It is now housed by an association in the south of Taipei.
“
On the boat, we could only sleep between three and five hours a day.
The food was insufficient and we were all very weak.
The boss was very violent with us.
One evening, he hit one of my Indonesian colleagues in the back of the neck.
The next day, we found him dead,
”he testifies.
Taiwanese companies own more than 1,000 deep-sea fishing boats, on which at least 20,000 migrant workers work.
Physical and verbal violence, withholding of passports or wages ... So many abuses that led in 2020 the US Department of Labor, to consider the product of their fishing as being
from forced labor
.
"
Excluded from the Taiwanese Labor Code
"
“
Taiwan still presents itself as a country that respects human rights.
But as far as migrant fishermen are concerned, this is absolutely not the case.
When the boats dock in Taiwan, the authorities very rarely do any checks.
It takes real political will to change that.
These fishermen are excluded from the Taiwanese Labor Code
, ”explains Lennon Ying-Dah Wong, the director of the association that hosts Jaka.
Last week, the oversight body of the Taiwanese political system for the first time urged the authorities to seriously tackle
the problem
.
A hope for NGOs as for Jaka, who hopes that his former captain will one day be judged.
*
Nickname
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Taiwan
Employment and Work
International Migration