Unions and workers’ rights groups have reiterated calls for the provision of Wi-Fi on deep-sea fishing vessels after a representative from the Taiwan Tuna Association said it was against the provision.
In an interview with industry news Web site Seafood Source on March 22, Tony Lin (林東), a spokesperson for the association, said Taiwan’s fishing industry was worried about Wi-Fi creating “potential management issues and safety hazards” on deep-sea fishing vessels and being potentially “disruptive to onboard working conditions.”
Lin said the industry wanted to help migrant fishing crew members have peace of mind by knowing that they could take care of their families with their remittances.
However, he argued that if crew members had access to the Internet, they could become “excessively worried” about their home situation, which might “seriously hinder their work mood and even lead to occupational disasters or disputes.”
Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF) executive director Jennifer Rosenbaum disagreed with Lin.
“The Taiwanese deep-sea fishing business model should not depend on exploiting forced labor and the complete seclusion of migrant fishers,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
“If Taiwan’s fishing industry really wants to improve fishers’ work mood and conditions, it would provide mandatory secure Wi-Fi Internet access on all deep-sea fishing vessels so fishers can communicate with their families and with their unions to report any abuses in realtime,” she said.
The GLJ-ILRF leads the Wi-Fi Now For Fishers’ Rights Campaign, which is being supported by US, Taiwanese and Indonesian non-governmental organizations.
The campaign demanded that Wi-Fi be installed on all Taiwanese fishing vessels and that migrant crew members be granted access to the Internet.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights senior researcher Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) said that the Taiwanese seafood industry would never act in the best interest of workers “unless the major global seafood brands and the Taiwanese government demand it.”
With the EU and US having implemented policies against seafood harvested through forced labor, access to Wi-Fi could help reduce incidents of forced labor and in turn help Taiwan’s fishing industry sell their products through major international retailers, he said.
Fisheries Agency fisheries personnel division head Hsueh Po-yuan (薛博元) said the agency has provided subsidies to fishing vessels to encourage them to install Wi-Fi.
The subsidy program includes NT$600,000 per vessel to install Wi-Fi and monthly subsidies of NT$40,000 for communication fees and NT$20,000 for subscription fees, he said.
So far, 92 vessels have installed Wi-Fi using the agency’s subsidies, and the agency hopes that it could incentivize up to 300 vessels to have Wi-Fi on board, he said, adding that Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessels have satellite phones, which could be used as an alternative to report any incident.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS