Taiwan this year maintained its Tier 1 ranking in the US Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which said Taiwan's authorities "fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking."
Taiwan, received a Tier 1 ranking for the 16th straight year, joining 32 other countries that were given the top ranking, including Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, the UK and the US.
The ranking means that Taiwan's government made efforts to address human trafficking and met the minimum standards of the US' Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, but does not mean the problem is nonexistent in Taiwan or that it is doing enough to stop it, the report said.
Photo: Screen grab from the US Department of State's Web site
Taiwan has convicted more traffickers, significantly increased the number of victims referred to services and investigated cases of suspected forced labor by commercial entities, the report said.
However, Taiwanese authorities have investigated fewer cases, prosecuted fewer suspects and did not fully implement victim identification procedures, which complicated some victims' access to justice and protective care, the report said.
The report also noted deficiencies in Taiwan's regulation of migrant workers and the conditions they work in.
Insufficient inspection protocols and the “siloing of authorities and responsibilities within different ministries continued to impede efforts to identify, investigate, and prosecute forced labor of migrant workers, including those on fishing vessels in Taiwan’s highly vulnerable Distant Water Fleet," it said.
Furthermore, restrictions on migrant workers' right to change jobs mid-contract and authorities' lack of specific labor laws ensuring the rights of migrant domestic caregivers continued to leave thousands vulnerable to exploitation, the report said.
The report defined human trafficking as a crime by which "traffickers exploit and profit at the expense of adults or children by compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex."
Taiwan-caught fish is still on the US Department of Labor's biennial List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, having been added in 2021 and again in 2023.
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