Unions and workers’ rights groups have reiterated calls for the provision of Wi-Fi on deep-sea fishing vessels after a representative from the Taiwan Tuna Association said it was against the provision.
In an interview with industry news Web site Seafood Source on March 22, Tony Lin (林東), a spokesperson for the association, said Taiwan’s fishing industry was worried about Wi-Fi creating “potential management issues and safety hazards” on deep-sea fishing vessels and being potentially “disruptive to onboard working conditions.”
Lin said the industry wanted to help migrant fishing crew members have peace of mind by knowing that they could take care of their families with their remittances.
However, he argued that if crew members had access to the Internet, they could become “excessively worried” about their home situation, which might “seriously hinder their work mood and even lead to occupational disasters or disputes.”
Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF) executive director Jennifer Rosenbaum disagreed with Lin.
“The Taiwanese deep-sea fishing business model should not depend on exploiting forced labor and the complete seclusion of migrant fishers,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
“If Taiwan’s fishing industry really wants to improve fishers’ work mood and conditions, it would provide mandatory secure Wi-Fi Internet access on all deep-sea fishing vessels so fishers can communicate with their families and with their unions to report any abuses in realtime,” she said.
The GLJ-ILRF leads the Wi-Fi Now For Fishers’ Rights Campaign, which is being supported by US, Taiwanese and Indonesian non-governmental organizations.
The campaign demanded that Wi-Fi be installed on all Taiwanese fishing vessels and that migrant crew members be granted access to the Internet.
Taiwan Association for Human Rights senior researcher Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) said that the Taiwanese seafood industry would never act in the best interest of workers “unless the major global seafood brands and the Taiwanese government demand it.”
With the EU and US having implemented policies against seafood harvested through forced labor, access to Wi-Fi could help reduce incidents of forced labor and in turn help Taiwan’s fishing industry sell their products through major international retailers, he said.
Fisheries Agency fisheries personnel division head Hsueh Po-yuan (薛博元) said the agency has provided subsidies to fishing vessels to encourage them to install Wi-Fi.
The subsidy program includes NT$600,000 per vessel to install Wi-Fi and monthly subsidies of NT$40,000 for communication fees and NT$20,000 for subscription fees, he said.
So far, 92 vessels have installed Wi-Fi using the agency’s subsidies, and the agency hopes that it could incentivize up to 300 vessels to have Wi-Fi on board, he said, adding that Taiwanese-flagged fishing vessels have satellite phones, which could be used as an alternative to report any incident.
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