Taiwan: Liberalism Versus abuse of migrants in fishing

Taiwan: Liberalism Versus abuse of migrants in fishing

Silwanus Tangkotta worked last year on a Taiwanese fishing boat in a remote Pacific when a heavy wave hit a rolling metal door on his hand and smashed his middle finger and ring finger.

The search for medical help

The Indonesian migrant fisherman urgently needed medical help, but the captain refused to return to the port because they hadn't caught enough fish to justify the trip. For more than a month, Tangkotta suffered from burning pain, while combining the wound with adhesive tape and poking around with a toothpick on the exposed bone to prevent infection.

"I did everything I could ... I took nail cutters and toothpick to remove the outstanding bones," he said CNN. "I thought that if I didn't pull out the bone, the infection will continue and my fingers will rub."

Tangkotta's story of suffering is shattering, but by no means an isolated case.

The fishing industry in Taiwan

Taiwan operates the world's second largest high-sea fishing fleet, the tuna, squid and other seafood to supermarkets all over the world, including the USA and Europe.

The self -managed island is widely advertised as a lighthouse of liberality and human rights in Asia and is considered a lively democracy with a relatively strong claim to equality - for example, Taiwan is one of only three Asian countries in which the same -sex marriage is legal.

But the treatment of migrant workers is increasingly under international observation and raises questions about Taiwan's commitment to these values. Since 2020, the U.S. Ministry of Labor has listed the Taiwan's Hochsee fishing industry as customary for forced labor and emphasized problems such as fraudulent recruitment, maintained wages, physical violence and extreme working hours.

reactions of the Taiwanese authorities

In a statement to CNN, the fishing authority of Taiwan explained that the reports of the US Ministry of Labor was based on "unconfirmed" information from NGOs and described migrant fishermen as "important partners" in the Taiwanese fishing industry.

The authority said Taiwan was "one of the few" jurisdictions that "had implemented a specific action plan for fishing and human rights". The Ministry of Labor Taiwan said that the fishing authority is working on "pragmatically protecting the rights of migrant fishermen in the high -sea fishing and improving the relevant protective measures."

Nevertheless, migrant workers like Tangkotta continue to see serious abuse, often without considerable public attention, sometimes because they remain politically and socially marginalized.

trapped on the sea

originally came from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, Tangkotta began working on Taiwanese ships in 2019, attracted by promises of better payment to support his family. In Indonesia, fishermen often earn less than $ 100 a month, which is low compared to Taiwan's minimum wage of $ 550.

However, reality was harder than expected. Tangkotta worked on a medium-sized fishing ship for up to four months at a time in the merciless Pacific, whereby he had 18-hour layers with only short breaks. Although the boat was designed for 23 crew members, only 16 were on board. The food was inadequate and often rose quickly, he said.

But a bigger problem was extreme isolation. The boat had no internet, which cut off the crew from their families and prevented them from looking for help. This isolation became critical when Tangkotta was seriously injured. The ship was near the Salomons, about 5,000 kilometers from Taiwan, when the door crushed its fingers. Without the possibility of calling help, he had no choice but to stay on board while the captain prioritized the profits. When he was finally transferred to another ship weeks later, it was also about fishing instead of driving back immediately.

a long way to healing

"I felt helpless and the pain made it difficult to sleep," he said. "I was disappointed because the only thing I went through my head was that I had to go ashore as soon as possible."

A month later he was brought to the hospital in Taiwan with two lost fingers, but immediately received a termination - not because of the injury, said the company, but because its position ended. As a result, he was denied compensation.

The fishing authority said that she received a report on Tangkotta's case from the fishing ship and he received the captain during the entire trip. "The case was reported to a doctor who checked that there was no immediate danger. The captain continued the care of Mr. Tangkotta based on the doctor's advice."

pattern of abuse

The Hochsee fishing industry Taiwan is dependent on more than 20,000 Indonesian and Filipino workers, but the political will to protect its rights is missing, said Allison Lee, co-founder of the Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union, which is located in a fishing port in Northeast Taiwan.

"Although the United States has marked Taiwan's fishing industry since 2020, the government reacted with rhetoric, but it changed very little," she said. Many workers were advertised with decent salaries, but were exposed to revision and late wages.

In contrast to most migrant workers in Taiwan, Hochsee fishermen are subject to another set of rules and are excluded from the Taiwanese labor standards law, which means that the protection of overtime remuneration and health insurance is canceled, the other preserved.

"There is a very serious problem with revision," added Lee. "Some migrant workers were said that there would be 10 crew members on board, but there were only four on board and they had to work for a very long time."

Even basic security measures were ignored, she said, and some were instructed not to wear life jackets because they “were in the way at work.”

In 2023, 10 Indonesian occupation members had wages on board the ship You Fu Fu Fu for 15 months, while at sea without way to contact families or check payments, according to the official Central news agency Taiwans. The fishermen were forced to eat bait with instant pasta due to lack of food and suffered verbal assault routinely, the report said. The salaries were finally paid after the owner got under the pressure of media reporting.

wage robbery is one of the most widespread problems with which migrant fishermen are confronted, said Achmad Mudzakir, a fisherman who acts as a leader of Fospi, a NGO resident in Taiwan and helps other crew members. His organization regularly receives symptoms of unpaid wages - with devastating consequences for the families. "It is painful because we are exposed to high risks at the sea and risk our lives. The late payments affect our families at home," he said.

necessary solutions for migrant fishermen

One of the Mudzakir's proposed solutions is the provision of WLAN access for all migrant fishermen, as this would enable them to check their payments and seek help from NGOs, even in the middle of the ocean. The regulations that migrant workers deny the change of job without return to their home country or without paying new agency fees should be abolished, he added because they prevent the workers from reporting abuse, out of fear of dismissal and debt.

In response to the inclusion of the US list of forced labor, the fishing authority of Taiwan has stated that it has introduced reforms since 2022-including increasing the minimum wage, installing surveillance cameras on boats and setting new inspectors to improve working conditions. But activists like Lee criticize the measures as cosmetic and claim that they aim to improve Taiwan's image instead of tackling the causes of forced labor.

a lost life

Adrian Dogdodo Bazaar, a former Indonesian migrant fisherman, brought about one of his closest friends on board a Taiwanese fishing ship in 2023. While he worked in the Pacific Ocean, his friend seriously ill with swollen legs and abdominal pain. Adrian said that the captain had asked to return to the port, rejected for cost reasons and offered only expired medication. After several months before the ship returned, his friend died.

Adrian reported that he was punished with food deprivation and threats of wage deductions when he asked for the body to be brought back home immediately. "We asked him to simply drive to the nearest port to bring the body home, but the captain refused us," he said. "When I started protesting, I didn't get any more food."

Like other migrant fishermen, Adrian had also paid more than $ 2,000 in agency fees to secure the work-a debt burden that prevented his colleagues from expressing himself for fear of losing their work.

The responsibility of consumers

Although these abuses may appear away, Taiwan is the seventh largest seafood exporter in the world, with a catch that ends up on the dining table around the world - which means that the seafood in the supermarket shelves may have been caught by exploited workers. "American consumers are still subject to considerable risks to consume seafood that are stained with modern slavery," said Sari Heidenreich, Senior Human Rights Advisor at Greenpeace USA. "It is crucial for companies that import seafood from Taiwan, check their supply chains a lot of rigorous."

At the beginning of this year, four Indonesian fishermen filed a pioneering lawsuit against the US preserving Bumble Bee Foods, which is owned by the Taiwanese fishing company FCF CO, and claimed that the gigant to the tuna "knowingly benefited from forced labor, debt and other misutling in his supply chain." It is the first known case of slavery on fishing boats that is directed against a US fishing company, said Agnieszka Fryszman, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, compared to Cnn.

As far as Silwanus is concerned, who is now dependent on friends and relatives, he hopes that nobody else has to suffer what he has gone through. "I hope that all my friends - all my brothers - work on Taiwanese ships will be treated appropriately in the event of a injury at sea," he said. "I hope that is reserved for me and does not happen to other fishermen again."