Filipino and Indonesian migrant fishers boogied and sang their hearts out as the reggae band Guhit, made up of migrant workers from the Philippines, performed a stunning rendition of Sublime’s summertime classic Santeria.
This is a glimpse into the joyous atmosphere at Sing for Fishers, a concert held on Sunday by the Stella Maris Center at Kaohsiung’s Cijin Harvest Square to honor migrant fishers and call for government action to improve their rights.
Migrant bands served up one catchy song after another, with the performances interspersed with speeches by migrant fisher groups.
Photo: Screen grab from Stella Maris Kaohsiung’s Facebook page
Wu Ting-kuan (吳庭寬), who works at the Stella Maris Center and coordinated the concert, told Central News Agency that when addressing issues about migrant fishers, interacting with government agencies and non-governmental organizations is insufficient, and that the public needs to be part of the conversation.
“Sing for Fishers is about advocacy through music,” Wu said. “We want to use this popular medium to make people aware of migrant fisher issues, such as their rights as workers and well-being.”
“We picked Cijin, a major tourist destination, hoping to introduce the public to complex issues regarding migrant fishers,” Wu said.
However, aside from a handful of officers from the Fisheries Agency and the Kaohsiung Bureau of Labor Affairs who stayed on the sidelines, the audience was made up almost entirely of migrants, meaning the event’s message was being missed by the key target audience: the Taiwanese public.
Despite the disappointing turnout among the Taiwanese public, migrant fisher groups gave speeches and seized the opportunity to highlight the problems they are facing.
“Right now, we can only take showers on the vessels. It’s the same when we need to use the bathroom. We hope the authorities will begin to build public shower rooms and toilets [at the port] to help us meet our basic needs,” said Hadi from Paguyuban LP Ewaliao, one of the groups.
Because fishers have to take showers on the uncovered parts of fishing vessels, they often have to wait until late at night when there are no tourists at the port so they can have some privacy, a source at Stella Maris said.
Furthermore, as vessels’ engines are turned off at night, using the bathroom onboard would cause a stench, but there is no other option as the public bathrooms near Kezailiao Harbor (also known as Ewaliao Harbor in Hokkien) are locked after dark, the source said.
Hsueh Po-yuan (薛博元), head of the Fisheries Manpower Division, said that he would discuss the matter with the Tzukuan Fishermen’s Association, which would maintain the shower facilities if they were to be built in the port.
The agency will make an inventory of state-owned plots of land where such facilities could be constructed, he added.
Meanwhile, for Indonesian fishers, who predominantly follow Islam, even practicing their religion is a struggle.
Nurdin, chairman of the migrant fishers’ group OPC in Cijin, said the local fisheries association would not give migrant fishers the key to a new prayer room it manages on behalf of the Kaohsiung Marine Bureau, despite initially promising to let them use it.
“I heard rumors that some people think we’re wasting the prayer room that has been provided. But in fact, we don’t have access to it,” Nurdin said. “So, please give us the key, and we will take good care of the prayer room.”
The issue has persisted for more than six months, because the fisheries association does not believe migrant fishers can take care of the venue and wants a registered Taiwanese organization to manage the space, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNA.
Hsueh said the fisheries association is headquartered in the Cijin Fish Market, which closes at 3pm.
As Muslims typically pray five times a day, this would create a gap in the management of the facility, as there would be no one to look after the space for the rest of the day, he said.
However, the agency has found a registered organization that has agreed to manage the space: the Kaohsiung Fishing Boat, Sampan and Raft Development Association, Hsueh said.
A contract between the two associations has been drafted and is awaiting approval from the Kaohsiung Marine Bureau, he said.
During the concert’s closing act at about 4:30pm, Indonesian punk rock band Southern Riot commanded the audience with a blistering performance of their Lagu Cinta Untuk BMI (Love Song from Indonesian Migrant Workers), in which the quartet was joined by migrants from the audience in railing against manpower brokers in Taiwan.
“We want to trumpet justice for our friends in Taiwan and everywhere. We hope music can always be a place for expressing our voices and our critical messages,” said Vai, the bassist of the band, known for their appetite for tearing into exploitations of migrant workers in their songs.
After sharing a rare moment of pure joy, some migrant workers and fishers had to return to their workplaces and potentially degrading conditions, uncertain if their demand for more dignified working conditions would ever be met.
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