Fishing in the dark: Forced Labour and the physical abuse of Migrant fishers in Taiwan

The Distant Water Fisheries Fishermen Threnody in Taiwan - Reunion Chapter - English version. Permission to use from Greenpeace media library.

The Distant Water Fisheries Fishermen Threnody in Taiwan - reunion Chapter - English version. Permission to use from Greenpeace Media Library.

Tuna transhipment on the high seas in the Indian Ocean between the Taiwan-registered Chin Horng No 3 and the Panama-registered reefer vessel Tuna 0ueen.

Picture this: You’re sat down at your dinner table, you feel the embrace of the warmth around you, and you gaze upon your partner, your children or your friends as you devour a seafood platter together, maybe its tuna sandwiches, grilled salmon or baked cod. You’ve been urged to eat more fish for your health, and the sustainability of your environment. So, do you think you are responsible for knowing what fish you consume?

An investigation organised by Greenpeace East Asia found illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), forced labour, and physical abuse reportedly happening within Taiwanese fishing vessels in the Atlantic Ocean.

A handful of fishers are fearful and ill-protected at sea, seduced into the promise of high wages, but trapped in a job that deprives them of their rights, they look to the side as their colleague rubs their tired eyes, deprived from sleep, and not knowing how long it will be before their tuna catch is adequate enough, so that they can go home and eat with their own family.

For these Migrant fishers in Taiwan, this is their reality.

Andy Shen, the US project leader for Greenpeace's global tuna campaign, highlights the abuse that the fishermen face aboard the Taiwanese vessels: “We have documented forced labour as the most common form of abuse as they work 18 hours and over without a break. Many are also subject to getting their wages withheld because of recruitment fees as well as physical abuse, dirty water, and inadequate food.”

According to the Choppy Waters report, a fisher working on the longliner said: “We only got to sleep for five hours if and when we caught some fish. If we didn’t catch anything, we’d just have to keep working, even for 34 hours straight.”

As stated by Destructive Fishing Watch-Indonesia (DFW), from November 2019-August 2020, the Fishers Centre has received 34 complaints with a total of 92 victims. Reported cases include: salary inaccuracy (35%), insurance and social security (23%), facilitation assistance (9%) and physical violence (9%).

DFW set up the Fishers Centre as a fishing vessel service, reporting and education centre.

“We have established Fishermen Centres in Tegal, Central Java and Bitung, North Sulawesi, two locations in Indonesia which are the pockets of fishing boat crews working at home and abroad” said Moh Abdi Suhufan, the national co-ordinator of DFW.

The Fishers centre also found that from November 2019-August 2020, 14 Indonesian crew members died, and three people disappeared while working on fishing vessels overseas.

According to the Fishers Centre, there were two crew members from Indonesia who fled by jumping into the sea. They were helped by Indonesian fishermen.

Pictured above: Mo Abdi Suhufan. Picture used

with permission.

The Choppy Waters report on Forced Labour and Illegal Fishing in Taiwan’s Distant Water Fisheries, disclosed that: “measures used to maintain control over the victims of forced labour and human trafficking include; the withholding of partial or all wages, denial of free movement, seizure of identity documents, and debt bondage.”

Without proof of identity, you can’t be protected, because the law can’t help citizens who ‘don’t exist.’ So, in cases of abuse, severe accidents and critical illness’, fishers can do nothing but endure the pain of their circumstances continuing on with their forced labour, until they return to land.

https://media.greenpeace.org/archive/Pole-and-Line-Fishermen-in-Taiwan-27MZIFVD4LH7.html /Taken by Steven Vigar, Greenpeace

Greenpeace have been calling on Tuna producers; FCF co, LTD, one of the world’s three largest tuna traders, with over 600 vessel suppliers in their supply chain, and Bumble Bee, the second largest canned Tuna company in the United States, to do more for people working in their vessels. Mr Shen said: “We have asked them to conduct audits on the vessels as there is very little oversight on board, these companies need to do more to make the fishers safe.”

In FCF’sTuna sustainability policy it states under section 2 of the forced labour policy that “FCF and its suppliers strictly prohibit forced, bonded or indentured labour, prison labour, slavery or trafficking of persons at any point in FCF supply chain. This includes transporting, harbouring, recruiting, transferring or receiving persons by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, deceptive or fraud for labour or services”.

Despite this policy, FCF have been linked, through Greenpeace’ investigation, to vessels conducting illegal practices: The vessel, Da-Wang, has been tied to physical abuse, IUU and forced labour: “one Indonesian fisher complained about forced labour, two Pilipino migrant workers complained about forced labour, one Pilipino fisher suffered a stroke and was deprived of medical care, and one Indonesian fisher was struck on the head and later died on the vessel” Mr Shen said.

In spite of the abuse of the fisher’s human rights on this vessel, FCF confirmed they bought from Da-Wang at least one time in 2019.

Not only is there a problem with the forced labour, and insufficient treatment of Taiwanese fishermen aboard fishing vessels, but illegal shark finning is also an increasing concern.

“One of the major problems are illegal shark finning, the fins of the sharks are cut off and the bodies of the sharks are thrown back into the ocean where they bleed and starve to death because they cannot get food” said Mr Shen.

Shark Fins on Longliner in the Indian Ocean, A crew member poses with shark fins on board the Woen Dar 168, a Taiwanese longliner

He continued: “We are also seeing illegal transhipments at sea, a fishing vessel transferring his catch of fish to a larger vessel that takes that fish back to port and enables the original fishing vessel to stay out at sea longer which results in the forced labour of fishers.”

https://media.greenpeace.org/archive/Illegal-Tuna-Fishing-Action-in-the-Pacific-Ocean-27MZIFJ6AO4MS.html

Shark fins found in the freezer of the Shuen De Ching No.888. In total there were sacks containing 75 kilograms of shark fins from at least 42 sharks.

Greenpeace have said: “In the U.S. we are putting pressure on FCF, and Bumble Bee to introduce new policies, oversee their suppliers, and use their economic leverage to stop abuse.”

There’s also hope, that in 2021, new U.S. laws will be introduced that require importers to ensure no forced labour runs through the supply chain.