Taiwan pledges to protect migrant fishermen after abuse claims

TAIPEI - Taiwan said Thursday it will spend more than Tw$2 billion ($68.5 million) to improve the welfare of foreigners working in its fishing industry, which has been accused of widespread abuse of migrants.

The island operates the world's second-largest deep-sea fishing fleet, with boats spending months -- and sometimes years -- crossing remote oceans to supply the seafood that ends up on our supermarket shelves.

But the lucrative industry has come under fire for allegedly subjecting its migrant workers to forced labor and other abuses, contrasting with the government's promotion of Taiwan as a regional 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 gathered testimony from the crew alleging that the deceased was stored in a freezer until the boat could dock in Fiji, and the vessel was later blacklisted by the United States. 

The Da Wang operated under a Vanuatu "flag of convenience" -- a category of ship where activists have warned the worst abuses can take place.  -- Agence France-Presse