FEATURE/NGOs, government at odds over migrant fisher care as 'forced labor' list looms

By Sean Lin, CNA staff reporter

At 6:30 a.m. on April 10, hundreds of Indonesian fishers congregated at the port in Pingtung County's Donggang Township to take part in a prayer for Eid-al-Fitr, the fast-breaking day for Muslims.

According to several worshipers, however, the turnout to celebrate one of the most important holidays in Islam was less than expected, in large part because many fishers had to work on a day that many felt should have been a holiday.

One Indonesian fisherman, who identified himself only as "Tarzan," said many fishermen he knew still had to work that day even though regulations exist allowing them to take the religious holiday off.

The situation was just a glimpse into the ongoing infringement of rights of the migrant workers who man Taiwan's distant-water fishing vessels and the gap in perception that exists between the government and the workers on how far Taiwan has come in protecting those rights.

At stake on whose perception wins out is whether Taiwanese-caught fish will be removed from the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, to be issued by the United States Department of Labor later this year, after making the list in 2020 and 2022 largely because of Taiwan's treatment of foreign fishers.

The government insists steps have been taken to improve the living and working conditions of fishery workers and align labor standards with international norms.

The migrant fishers and NGOs are skeptical, however, believing that much of the abuse that landed Taiwan on the U.S. list continues unabated even if government figures downplay it.

Tarzan's experience is a case in point.

Fear of consequences

Beyond not getting Eid-al-Fitr off, he was also often physically pushed by his former boss when his work fell short of the boss' standards, but he never reported the problems to the Fisheries Agency for fear of getting into "trouble" with his manpower agency, Tarzan said.

Those same concerns may limit the reporting of abuse throughout the industry, but Fisheries Agency Senior Specialist Chiu Yi-hsien (邱宜賢) argued migrant fishers had no reason to be afraid.

Chiu said crew members who have problems with their employers can safely file complaints using the government's 1955 hotline or the Taiwan Foreign Crew Interactive Service Platform without having to worry about their identities getting back to their employers.

Still, problems remains embedded in the system, said Achmad Mudzakir, head of FOSPI, the largest Indonesian migrant fishers' association in Taiwan.

Breadwinners exploited

Late wage payments remain a serious problem for migrant fishers, Mudzakir said, citing an incident in 2023 in which 19 Indonesian fishers were owed wages for periods of time ranging from six to 10 months.

They were finally paid, he said, after the Fisheries Agency's Kaohsiung Office stepped in and held two meetings with their employers.

Furthermore, Mudzakir said, varying amounts are deducted from distant-water fishers' wages and paid to manpower brokers as "administrative fees." Such fees are collected as an alternative to job placement fees, which are illegal, he said.

The problem is further complicated by the lack of Wi-Fi on many Taiwanese fishing vessels, said Lennon Wong (汪英達), director of migrant worker policies at the Serve the People Association in Taoyuan.

That means they are denied a means of communication for several months and have to wait until they dock at a port to contact their families, Wong said.

"That's the only time they can check if their family received remittances or not. And oftentimes the answer is 'no,' or maybe 'not that much; there was a big deduction,'" he said.

Labor rights groups have been urging the Fisheries Agency to require employers to directly pay migrant fishers monthly rather than through brokers every three or six months, but few, if any, shipowners have adopted the groups' suggestion, Wong said.

'Not machines'

In addition to wage-related uncertainties, another pervasive issue in the distant-water fishing sector is long working hours, Wong noted.

"At fishing sites, fishers usually have to work non-stop for a very long time and can only sleep for a few hours between shifts because the shipowners always want bigger catches," Wong said.

According to Wong, this problem has persisted despite a legal revision in 2022 requiring employers of distant-water fishers to give them at least 10 hours of rest, including at least six consecutive hours of sleep, and at least 77 hours of rest per seven days.

"Humans are not machines. You cannot let them work like that. They may get sick, they may die," he said.

The Fisheries Agency, meanwhile, gave a very different account.

Parallel universes?

It said it conducted inspections of about 80 percent of Taiwan's distant-water fishing vessels in the past two years and found that 89 percent of them fully complied with working hour regulations.

In addition, no wage-related violations were reported for 95 percent of the vessels checked during that same period, it said in a press release.

Those figures are misleading, Wong said, because most migrant fishers, such as Tarzan, do not dare file complaints with government agencies to stand up for their rights.

Under the Regulations of Temporary Entry Permit for Foreigners, distant-water fishing vessels are only allowed to dock at a Taiwanese port for one week in principle and no more than two weeks, Wong said.

Some migrant fishers who filed grievances have been fired and quickly deported because they did not have enough time to land a new job, he said.

Chiu, meanwhile, said that once a grievance has been filed, the agency will look into it and take the necessary action, such as fining offenders or asking them to make improvements, regardless of whether the complainant has been deported.

Shipowners found with major offenses will have their fishing licenses suspended or revoked, Chiu said, but none of those actions help overseas workers who have lost their jobs over a grievance.

Interviews

The Fisheries Agency also defended its depiction of an improved environment because that picture is based on interviews with distant-water fishers when their vessels are moored in fishing ports, which are designed to identify labor standard violations.

Labor rights advocates cast doubt, however, on whether those interviews are really able to get to the bottom of the abuses, with Wong arguing that those interviewed are coached on what to say and what not to say.

Mudzakir also questioned the authenticity of these interviews, saying that the fishers were coached to speak positively about their employers and working conditions.

In the past, he said, some crew members said unpleasant things about their employers during the interviews, got bad feedback in return, and were deported.

"That's why they are scared to tell the truth in interviews with the Fisheries Agency," he said.

However, Mudzakir did say he was grateful for the work Taiwan has undertaken on the issue, including pushing statutory rest hours and raising the minimum monthly wage for foreign fishers from US$450 to US$550.

Wong, meanwhile, said Taiwan's distant water fishing industry has seen "very limited progress" on crew members' rights, and he did not want to see Taiwan removed from the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor so that the government is forced to take further strides to make improvements.

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