On Taiwanese ships, Indonesian workers abused, illegal fishing reported: NGO
- The Environmental Justice Foundation found the Indonesian workers it interviewed experienced wage issues, excessive overtime and physical abuse
- Crew from Taiwan’s distant-water fishing fleet, one of the world’s largest, also say some vessels engaged in shark finning and dolphin killing
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), which says it has been investigating the activities of Taiwan’s fishing fleet since 2016, last month released a report based on interviews with 71 Indonesian crew members from 62 vessels that were conducted from August 2018 to November 2019.
Fishermen from 92 per cent of the vessels surveyed had their wages withheld for months, while on 82 per cent of the ships, crew reported excessive overtime during which they had to work “up to 20 hours per day with very little time to rest”. Workers from 24 per cent of vessels experienced physical abuse.
One of the eight case studies in the report was Supri, who from December 2018 to March 2019 worked on a Taiwanese vessel that operated around the Indian Ocean. He recounted how the captain asked him to shower before he was instructed to step into a freezer. The captain then closed the door for about 15 minutes.
“I felt very stiff and found it difficult to breathe,” Supri said, as quoted in the report. “Finally the door was opened and I heard the captain say to the rest of the crew: ‘If he dies just say that he died in an accident and then we will throw his body into the sea.’”
Supri said he had received “frequent incidents of physical abuse … as punishment”. In his case, the report pointed out that he “knew he could not fight back for fear of being murdered by the captain”.
