Choppy Waters: Forced Labour and Illegal Fishing in Taiwan’s Distant Water Fisheries
This report is based on a 2019 investigation conducted by Greenpeace East Asia, involving interviews with migrant fishers from three fishing vessels that were either flagged or linked to Taiwan. We found that IUU fishing and forced labour, allegedly, still continue to happen aboard Taiwanese fishing vessels operating in the Atlantic Ocean. The investigation indicates that violations of labour and human rights related laws seem to remain commonplace in Taiwan’s distant water fishing fleet, where over 20,000 migrant workers, most of whom are hired overseas from Indonesia and the Philippines, are employed. The labour conditions reported might violate relevant Taiwanese regulations and they fulfil seven of the eleven International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labour.
