Taiwan pledges to protect migrant fishermen after abuse claims

Taiwan said Thursday it will spend extra than Tw$2 billion ($sixty eight.5 million) to enhance the welfare of foreigners operating in its fishing enterprise, which has been accused of tremendous abuse of migrants.

The island operates the sector’s 2nd-biggest deep-sea fishing fleet, with boats spending months — and every so often years — crossing far-flung oceans to deliver the seafood that ends up on our grocery store shelves.

But the rewarding enterprise has come underneath fire for allegedly subjecting its migrant employees to compelled hard work and different abuses, contrasting with the government’s promotion of Taiwan as a local human-rights beacon.

Premier Su Tseng-chang, who announced the funding for the “fishing industry and human rights action plan” passed by Taiwan’s cabinet Thursday, said that it aims to improve the working conditions of migrant fishermen.

“It is the right thing to properly look after these foreign crew members who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and seek a living at sea,” he said in a statement.

The monthly basic salary for foreign crew will be raised to $550 from $450 from July, in the first pay hike in five years.

Crew members will now spend a maximum of 10 months at sea.

Authorities also vowed to boost inspection rates of longline fishing boats, currently at less than 10 percent, to 100 percent “to resolve the problems at the root”, according to the statement.

The announcement came a day after prosecutors indicted nine people for allegedly exploiting and abusing foreign crew members on one vessel. Activists have long warned that such abuse was going under-reported and unpunished.

Prosecutors allege the Taiwanese captain and first officer of the “Da Wang” fishing vessel beat migrants, forced them to work up to 20 hours a day, and made Muslims eat pork — among other abuses.

Activists welcomed the indictment, saying it was rare to prosecute Taiwanese in such cases, and they called on authorities to follow through on promises to reform the industry.

The Da Wang became the focus of attention by rights activists and prosecutors in 2019 following the death of an Indonesian crew member after he was allegedly hit in the head by the first officer.

Greenpeace accumulated testimony from the crew alleging that the deceased became stored in a freezer until the boat ought to dock in Fiji, and the vessel changed into later blacklisted through the US.

The Da Wang operated under a Vanuatu “flag of convenience” — a category of a ship where activists have warned the worst abuses can take location.