The owner of Taiwanese distant-water fishing vessel You Fu on Friday denied she had deliberately delayed payments to crew members for 15 months and responded to some of the allegations made by Indonesian fishers working on the ship.
Some allegations by the Indonesians made on Wednesday were “false” and hurt the image of Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry, Kung Kun-tung (孔坤桐), a director at Taiwan Tuna Longline Association, of which Pingtung-based You Fu is a member, told a news conference, speaking on behalf of the vessel’s owner.
RESPONSE
One crew member had said that his wife had a miscarriage and urgently needed the You Fu’s labor broker to transfer the wages he was owed, but his request was denied.
Presenting a transfer slip, Kung said a cash transfer was made to a designated account.
The crew members said that they often ran out of food and had to eat fish bait and instant noodles, but this was false, Kung said, presenting receipts for NT$1.6 million (US$49,322) worth of food, adding that it showed crew members ate normally.
Kung also denied that the skipper had “seized” their passports, but said they were held for safekeeping.
Due to falling fish prices amid high inflation and soaring fuel prices, the shipowner encountered cash flow problems and had to source funds to pay the migrant fishers, who declined to be paid in installments, Kung said.
When they finally had the money on Tuesday and were ready to pay the crew members the next morning, the interpreter could not locate them because they had gone with non-governmental organizations (NGO) to Taipei for a news conference on Wednesday, Kung said.
Kung said it is not clear why the NGOs took the crew members to Taipei right before the shipowner was about to pay them.
All fishers who were owed wages were paid in full on Thursday under the supervision of the Fisheries Agency, Kung added.
FORCED LABOR?
Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔), a senior researcher at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, which co-organized Wednesday’s news conference, denied they had tried to show the nation’s distant-waters fishing industry in a negative light by highlighting an isolated case.
Withholding salary payments to crew members blamed on cash flow issues is against the Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights promulgated by the agency, he said.
The shipowner claimed they held the crew members’ identification documents for safekeeping, but such behavior is flagged by the International Labour Organization as an indicator of forced labor, he added.
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