Taiwanese seafood products for the second consecutive time have been included in the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, published by the US Department of Labor on Wednesday.
This year’s report maintains the forced-labor designation that Taiwanese seafood first received in the previous edition in 2020.
Reports have been made of adults forced to work in Taiwan’s distant-water fishing fleet, which has more than 1,100 vessels in the world’s second-largest fleet, and employs an estimated 35,000 migrant workers, the report said.
The workers, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, are recruited by agencies that “sometimes deceive workers with false information regarding their wages and the terms of their contracts,” and require them to pay recruitment fees and sign debt contracts, it said.
The workers’ identity documents are often confiscated upon boarding, and they can spend months at sea without stopping at a port of call, working up to 22 hours per day, the report said.
Workers often “face hunger and dehydration, live in degrading and unhygienic conditions, and are subjected to physical violence or verbal abuse,” while being unable to leave the vessel or end their contracts, the report said, adding that many are not paid their promised wages, and have food and lodging fees illegally deducted, it said.
Greenpeace Taiwan said the listing would negatively affect Taiwan’s international reputation and its ability to export seafood products, due to a growing demand among consumers and retailers for ethically sourced seafood.
The Fisheries Agency said that after the 2020 report was published, it launched a four-year action plan for fisheries and human rights, with the goal of increasing workers’ salaries, improving labor conditions, better managing labor brokers and increasing government oversight.
Taiwan has also made several revisions to the Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members (境外僱用非我國籍船員許可及管理辦法), and has established a formal mechanism for reporting human and labor rights abuses, the agency said.
The revisions have raised the minimum monthly salary for workers on distant-water fishing vessels from US$450 to US$550, and require workers be covered by health insurance policies with minimum payouts of NT$300,000 (US$9,451) and life insurance policies worth NT$1.5 million, it said.
The agency earlier this month updated US officials on its efforts to improve conditions in the industry, it said.
While Taiwan’s inclusion in the latest report is “regrettable,” the agency strives to continue efforts to expand labor protections and be removed from the list as soon as possible, it added.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS