Migrant fishers illegally forced to guard vessels during typhoon: NGO

Taipei, Oct. 3 (CNA) Many migrant fishers in Pingtung's Donggang Township are being illegally made to stay on their fishing vessels on Thursday despite the county government ordering that they be evacuated and provided shelter from Typhoon Krathon, according to a fishermen association representative.

Many Indonesian fishers in Donggang were ordered by their Taiwanese employers to stay onboard to guard their ships in case powerful winds brought by Krathon break the mooring lines, which would cause them to drift out to sea, said Achmad Mudzakir, head of FOSPI, the largest Indonesian fishermen association in Taiwan.

These include members of both distant-water fishing and coastal fishing crews, Mudzakir told CNA.

If there were Indonesian fishers on land, they were either praying at mosques or their contracts had expired and they were looking for new jobs, Mudzakir added.

The Central Weather Administration issued a strong wind advisory for Pingtung on Thursday, with level 9-10 gusts recorded on the Hengchun Peninsula.

Strong winds and heavy rain brought by Typhoon Krathon have caused two deaths, injured 490 and left one person unaccounted for as of 8 p.m. Thursday, according to the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC).

Meanwhile, similar situations were reported in other fishing ports, including the one in Kaohsiung's Cijin District.

Muslimin, an Indonesian crew member on a coastal fishing vessel, told CNA he and two other crew members were made to guard their ship from Wednesday until Thursday.

This came despite the Kaohsiung City government ordering that all fishing vessels under 100 tonnes be evacuated on Tuesday.

According to Muslimin, his fishing vessel was in the "CT3" category, meaning it weighed between 20 and 50 tonnes.

During a telephone interview with CNA early Thursday afternoon, Muslimin said the strong winds had been rocking his ship so violently that even the short trip to the onboard bathroom was "scary."

He added that he was ordered to watch the mooring lines on Wednesday night and only managed to nap a few times throughout the night.

Asked to comment on the situation, Hsueh Po-yuan (薛博元), head of the Fisheries Agency's (FA) Fisheries Manpower Division, said under the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act, local governments have the jurisdiction to issue evacuation orders for crew members in the event of a natural disaster, and once such an order has been given, shipowners must take their crews to a shelter.

Shipowners found to have disobeyed such an order shall be fined NT$50,000 to NT$250,000 (US$1,560 to US$7,800) by the local government, Hsueh said.

However, Hsieh Chun-yi (謝俊億), an official at the Pingtung County Marine and Fisheries Management Office, said his agency would have to consult with the FA to determine whether to fine shipowners who flouted the evacuation order, citing challenges enforcing the rule, which left his agency in a "conundrum."

When informed by CNA about the situation in Donggang Thursday morning, Hsieh said the county government ordered all fishing vessels in the county to evacuate their crews on Wednesday and that he would ask office staff to investigate the situation.

However, when contacted again at 2:30 p.m., Hsieh said his agency had allowed the migrant crews to remain on the ships despite Krathon having made landfall near Kaohsiung's Siaogang District at 12:40 p.m.

After his agency contacted the Taiwan Tuna Longline Association and other relevant fisheries associations in the area, the groups expressed grave concern over mooring lines breaking, Hsieh told CNA.

"Not only migrant crew members but also their Taiwanese shipowners are staying on the ships," Hsieh added, but he did not specify how many ships his colleagues had checked.

"The winds and rain are still very strong, and they are very worried," Hsieh said. "If the lines break, the ships will float around and bump into other ships moored nearby, especially during typhoons when fishing ports are more crowded than usual."

Hsieh said his agency acknowledged that crew members should be allowed to go on land and that his agency would consult with the FA and fisheries associations to explore the possibility of revising relevant rules to address this kind of "special circumstance."

Allison Lee (李麗華), secretary-general at Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union, said the FA has published its Principles for Docking Fishing Vessels and Sheltering Crew Members during Typhoons document, but they are not enforced.

Authorities should proactively visit fishing ports to ensure fishing crews are evacuated before a typhoon is about to make landfall, as evacuations during a typhoon would be dangerous, she said.