Taiwan shared progress in improving human rights in the fishing sector at the “Taiwan-US Bilateral Consultation on Fishery Labor Rights and Benefits”

TAIPEI, Taiwan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The “Taiwan-U.S. Bilateral Consultation on Fishery Labor Rights and Benefits” was held on September 2, U.S. time, in Washington, D.C. The Taiwan Fisheries Agency (TFA) met up with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL/ILAB) for exchanging information and experience on safeguarding fishery labor rights.

TFA mentioned that Taiwan showed its strong commitment on improving and safeguarding the rights and welfare of migrant fishermen working on Taiwan’s distant water fishing vessels, and also briefly shared its “Action Plan for Fisheries and Human Rights” with the U.S.

In the meeting, the U.S. DOL/ILAB emphasized that reducing the prevalence of forced labor is the key of removing a good from the list of TVPRA. The U.S. especially noticed that Taiwan would like to have more inspectors to conduct labor inspections and also provide additional measures on safeguarding the rights and welfare of migrant fishermen on Taiwanese fishing vessels. With that, the U.S. hope the prevalence of forced labor can be reduced; moreover, with Taiwan’s effort on the implementation of social protection program and the establishment of migrant fishermen unions, the U.S. also look forward to seeing Taiwan to have a better social mechanism on monitoring the fishery labor rights.

Finally, TFA wish the U.S. may have a better understanding of Taiwan’s efforts on improving and safeguarding the human rights of migrant fishermen on Taiwan’s distant water fishing vessels. Besides, TFA also took this opportunity to pay a visit to the Greenpeace USA office. TFA emphasized the cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S., in public and private, shared the same goal to improve and safeguard the human right and welfare of the migrant fishermen. Taiwan wishes to cooperate and collaborate with all like-minded countries and NGOs to the relevant works.