Fisheries Agency Proactively Investigates Allegations to Safeguard the Rights of Law-abiding Operators and Foreign Crew
- Update
- 2023-01-09
- hit
- 2244
To comply with the Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights, the Fisheries Agency (TFA) continues to conduct labor inspections on distant-water fishing vessels, operators and agents, and speeds up investigations of the complaints involving foreign crew’s rights and benefits. However, because of little information or insufficient evidence, certain cases are difficult to verify. TFA has appealed to the public for providing concrete evidence or clear information while making allegations.
TFA stated that the competent authority can promptly investigate and deal with the appeal case of individual foreign crew. TFA can help those foreign crew solve the problems or troubles they encounter at present.
However, in the report of “Fake My Catch: The Unreliable Traceability in our Tuna Cans” on September 1st 2022, Greenpeace has accused that 24 fishing vessels of Taiwan nationality or invested and operated by Taiwan nationals were involved in forced labor. For most of the accused fishing vessels, Greenpeace only listed the numbers of interviewees and ILO indicators of forced labor without offering details and concrete evidence. This report has impacted the sales and trade of the fishery products. To clarify if forced labor does exist, TFA has officially requested Greenpeace to provide concrete evidence of the allegations twice but no response has yet been received.
TFA reiterates that the competent authority adopts neutral stance to conduct investigation to all the accusations of invading foreign crew’s rights and benefits and the investigation will be proceeded on the premise of the privacy and safety of the foreign crew. With the help of the relevant personnel or organizations to provide concrete evidence of the allegations or complaints, the investigations can be conducted to clarify the truth and to safeguard labor rights and benefits of foreign crew and law-abiding operators.
Contact Person: Mr. Ding-Rong Lin, Director of Deep Sea Fisheries Division
Email: dingrong@ms1.fa.gov.tw