Taiwan’s labour reputation hit as Greenpeace urges downgrade over migrant-worker violations
- With world’s second-largest fishing fleet, Taiwan is at risk of being shunned by Southeast Asian workers at a time when it is desperate to shore up its workforce
- Global coalition says Taiwanese authorities have not done enough to improve fishing industry conditions, and it wants Washington to weigh in
Greenpeace USA and other overseas advocacy groups say that migrants working for the Taiwanese fishing fleet, the world’s second-largest, are pushed into “forced” labour – striking a blow to Taiwan’s image as it recruits from abroad to offset a declining domestic workforce.
The environmental group, along with the Global Labour Justice-International Labour Rights Forum and the Seafood Working Group, said in a statement on Monday that they had also found “labour rights violations” and “human rights violations” in Taiwan.
The Washington-based Seafood Working Group – a global coalition of human rights, labour and environmental organisations – urged the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to lower Taiwan’s status from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in its 2023 “Trafficking in Persons Report”.
“The Taiwanese government made efforts to improve the working conditions in its distant water fishing industry,” the statement acknowledges. “However, these have not been appreciable.”
If migrant workers in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines become increasingly put off by Taiwan’s reputation, they will be more likely to pick other parts of the world seeking migrant workers, according to activists and economists. Migrants from those three countries make up much of Taiwan’s 35,000-strong fishing crews.
