The Executive Yuan on Monday released the nation’s third report on its progress on human rights issues: Milestones reached over the past four years are plenty, including the legalization of same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of adultery, and show its commitment to UN human rights covenants.
However, there is one issue that continues to blight the nation’s reputation: the mistreatment of migrant workers — especially the 22,000 or so toiling on long-haul fishing boats — with new and more damning reports surfacing on a regular basis.
Taiwan was listed last month as the No. 1 focus of complaints by Indonesian migrant fishers, and the Environmental Justice Foundation on Wednesday last week reported that not only do migrant fishers face violence, exploitation and trafficking, they are also forced to conduct illegal activities such as catching dolphins and using their blood to attract sharks.
The revelations are not surprising, but it is a problem that the government should be more worried about, especially since Taiwan was just last year removed from the EU’s list of uncooperative nations in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The issue was mentioned in Monday’s human rights presentation, with Executive Yuan Human Rights Protection and Promotion Committee convener Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) saying that migrant fishers now have “enhanced protection” under the Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members (境外僱用非我國籍船員許可及管理辦法).
The regulations were promulgated in 2017 and updated last year. On paper, they do safeguard the fishers’ rights, but enforcement is difficult given the months they spend at sea, and reports have shown that inspectors are often not proficient in the migrants’ languages, meaning they only speak to the Taiwanese employers or crew.
While the offenders who are caught are fined, it is clear that the system is not working, as countless more fall through the cracks — so hardly a human rights achievement.
The migrant worker system as a whole needs to be overhauled for real change to be seen, but the government is reluctant to do so, preferring to roll out solutions that look good on paper, but are ineffective.
A silver lining is the increased attention that the issue has been receiving. Not only do the reports of mistreatment keep coming, the plight of migrant workers is also being featured in mainstream media. While the government can certainly do more, public perception also needs to change.
A feature film released in January, Boluomi (菠蘿蜜), touched upon the subject, and the drama The Rootless (無主之子), which premiered on Sunday on Formosa TV, is told through the eyes of a young Vietnamese man who comes to Taiwan to work on a fishing boat.
The abuse the worker faces from the boat’s Taiwanese captain and engineer is clearly portrayed, with the Taiwan International Workers’ Association saying that “the drama is the most accurate work in the past 20 years” regarding the issues that migrant workers face.
The show has garnered much media attention and discussion, and it continues the trend of TV stations rolling out productions addressing social issues.
Art and cultural efforts are often the most effective way to bring more attention to societal problems, and Formosa TV should be praised for tackling the issue head-on from migrants’ perspectives.
In the past month, two important developments are poised to equip Taiwan with expanded capabilities to play foreign policy offense in an age where Taiwan’s diplomatic space is seriously constricted by a hegemonic Beijing. Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) led a delegation of Taiwan and US companies to the Philippines to promote trilateral economic cooperation between the three countries. Additionally, in the past two weeks, Taiwan has placed chip export controls on South Africa in an escalating standoff over the placing of its diplomatic mission in Pretoria, causing the South Africans to pause and ask for consultations to resolve
An altercation involving a 73-year-old woman and a younger person broke out on a Taipei MRT train last week, with videos of the incident going viral online, sparking wide discussions about the controversial priority seats and social norms. In the video, the elderly woman, surnamed Tseng (曾), approached a passenger in a priority seat and demanded that she get up, and after she refused, she swung her bag, hitting her on the knees and calves several times. In return, the commuter asked a nearby passenger to hold her bag, stood up and kicked Tseng, causing her to fall backward and
In December 1937, Japanese troops captured Nanjing and unleashed one of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. Over six weeks, hundreds of thousands were slaughtered and women were raped on a scale that still defies comprehension. Across Asia, the Japanese occupation left deep scars. Singapore, Malaya, the Philippines and much of China endured terror, forced labor and massacres. My own grandfather was tortured by the Japanese in Singapore. His wife, traumatized beyond recovery, lived the rest of her life in silence and breakdown. These stories are real, not abstract history. Here is the irony: Mao Zedong (毛澤東) himself once told visiting
When I reminded my 83-year-old mother on Wednesday that it was the 76th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, she replied: “Yes, it was the day when my family was broken.” That answer captures the paradox of modern China. To most Chinese in mainland China, Oct. 1 is a day of pride — a celebration of national strength, prosperity and global stature. However, on a deeper level, it is also a reminder to many of the families shattered, the freedoms extinguished and the lives sacrificed on the road here. Seventy-six years ago, Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東)
RSS