Taiwan offers foreign fishermen more jobs, vows to ‘systematically improve’ migrant worker rights

In November, Taiwan expanded rules to allow fishing vessel owners to train foreign workers as ‘first-level engineers and ‘second-level’ shipmates

Taiwan’s fishing industry, though, has been hit by accusations of mistreatment of crew and labour rights concerns

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Taiwan has the world’s second-largest distant-water fishing fleet and is one of the world’s largest seafood exporters, with over 35,000 migrant workers employed on 1,110 ships as of 2020. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 8 Jan 2023

Taiwan hopes efforts to “systematically improve the labour rights of migrants” will help address a shortage of workers in its US$2 billion fishing industry as part of efforts to offset a shrinking domestic labour pool caused by a falling birth rate.

Officials said last year that Taiwan is aiming to bring in 400,000 foreign workers by 2030, with government agencies relaxing residency rules for white-collar jobs while also offering help to foreign-owned businesses.

In November, the government’s Fisheries Agency expanded its rules to allow vessel owners to train foreign workers as “first-level” engineers and “second-level” shipmates.

The changes will help Taiwan’s cabinet “in promoting the policy of retaining foreign intermediate-level technical manpower”, the agency said in a statement.

This [new] policy is to retain high-quality foreign crew members as crew officers, and to ensure the sustainable development of our country’s fishery

Fisheries Agency

“Foreign crew members employed by fishing vessel owners were originally only allowed to serve as ordinary crew members,” the statement added.