Withdrawal of Law? Forced Labor? Review and Reconstruction of Labor Policy and Labor Standards for Migrant Fishermen

Principle Investigator：Yu-Fan, Chiu, Associate Professor of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Law, in 2021-2022

Yu-Fan, Chiu, Associate Professor of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Law, in 2021-2022

Taiwan is one of largest distant-water fishing countries in the world. To supply the demand of labor in this industry, Taiwan has allowed the employment of fishermen in foreign ports since the 1980s. By the end of September 2020, Taiwan had 1,106 foreign flag fishing vessels, employed about 22,000 Migrant Fishermen abroad working in three major oceans in the world and used 32 ports in the world. However, The European Commission issued a “yellow card” warning to Taiwan on October 1, 2015, labeling Taiwan is an “uncooperative” country in fighting Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (hereinafter the “IUU”) fishing. Moreover, the US also listed Taiwan in the ninth edition of List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, which promulgated on September 30, 2020. To solve issues of forced labor and foreign labors’ rights, Taiwan started to enact or amend laws of distant-water fisheries, including Act for Distant Water Fisheries, Act to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels (hereinafter the “Act to Foreign Fishing Vessels”) and Fisheries Act and its relevant sub-regulations (16 sub-regulations in total). Furthermore, Taiwan enacted Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members with the authorization from Article 26 of the Act to Foreign Fishing Vessels to regulate abroad employment of foreign fishermen. However, the enactment of the Regulations indicates foreign fishermen cannot apply Labor Standards Act. In fact, in 1988, Taiwan also used the same way to exclude foreign domestic workers from the application of Labor Standards Act. Based on the right to equality and human rights, this study will focus on analyzing the exceptions of Taiwan's labor law policies, which excluding foreign fishermen from the application of Taiwan’s existing labor laws, and review and reconstruct of foreign fishermen and their labor standards on the sea.