Greenpeace yesterday accused the Fisheries Agency of dragging its feet with regards to revoking the operation rights of a Taiwanese-owned fishing vessel determined by the US to have used forced labor.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Jan. 28 announced it had determined that the Da Wang had used forced labor after investigations found evidence aboard the vessel of all 11 indicators developed by the International Labor Organization to assess forced labor conditions.
The 11 indicators are abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, isolation, physical or sexual violence, intimidation or threats, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive working or living conditions and assigning excessive overtime.
However, the Fisheries Agency did not announce that it would revoke the Taiwanese owner’s right to operate the vessel until Jan. 29, a day after the CPB made its announcement, while Greenpeace had since 2019 published reports of alleged abuse and a death on the ship.
The Da Wang, which is owned and operated by the Taiwanese company Yong Feng Fishery Co (永豐國際生物科技公司), was named in Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s 2019 report titled Seabound: The Journey to Modern Slavery on the High Seas.
The vessel has also been linked as a supplier of Taiwanese tuna trading company FCF Co, which owns US consumer brand Bumblebee Seafoods.
The report quoted a former Da Wang crew member as saying: “When the Fishing Master was angry, he hit my friend’s head near his left ear.
“After that he was forced to continue working until the work was finished and only then was he allowed to rest. In the morning when we woke up for breakfast, we found him dead in his room.”
The government is not doing enough to crack down on human rights abuses in Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry, said Yuton Lee (李于彤), an oceans campaigner from Greenpeace East Asia’s Taipei Office.
Taiwan is also failing to take proactive measures to stop crime and other illegal activities from the supply side, Lee said.
After a death occurred on the vessel, the Da Wang was still allowed to enter and exit ports in Taiwan, Lee said, adding that it entered in March 2020, before leaving in May that year, and returned in March last year, leaving in October.
However, in July 2020, the the CBP handed the Da Wang a Withhold Release Order, denying the entry of its goods into the US pending further investigation, yet it was still able to enter and exit Taiwan, Greenpeace records showed.
Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-ping (林國平) said that when the Da Wang entered and exited port, his agency dispatched personnel to conduct investigations and provided information to the prosecutors’ office.
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