Human Trafficking Workshop Draws Protest
Taiwan's interior ministry is hosting a two-day workshop about human trafficking. The event invites immigration and human rights experts from around the world to talk about the ever-changing nature of the issue, but one group is protesting the symposium, arguing it fails to address a key issue – the forced labor of migrant fishers.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00At this conference center in downtown Taipei, hundreds of people are gathered for a two-day
00:05workshop about human trafficking.
00:08Hosted by the Interior Ministry, the event invites experts from around the world to talk
00:12about the various forms human trafficking takes.
00:15This year touching on online scams, forced labor and the organ trade, among other issues.
00:21The annual conference follows the release of the U.S. State Department's annual Human
00:25Trafficking Report, which evaluates countries on how they're dealing with the issue.
00:30This year Taiwan has again achieved Tier 1 status, which means the U.S. thinks Taipei
00:36is making quote, serious and sustained efforts to eliminate human trafficking.
00:41But based on the agenda for this year's workshop, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights believes
00:46one big issue is going unaddressed.
00:49Foreign workers in Taiwan, especially foreign workers in the Far East, they are the perpetrators
00:56of human trafficking and forced labor that are constantly taking place.
01:02But this issue has not been discussed much in the past two days at the International
01:08Workshop.
01:11End forced labor!
01:14The lack of focus on the fishes issue led to a protest outside the workshop venue.
01:19But the government says it's a problem they're working on.
01:22We have adopted the Fishing for Human Rights Action Plan.
01:26In this action plan, we are working with various ministries and private organizations.
01:35We encourage fishermen to install Wi-Fi on their boats.
01:41The most recent U.S. report on human trafficking found that in 2023, Taiwanese authorities
01:46identified a total of 282 trafficking victims.
01:51That's an almost 20 percent decrease on the year before.
01:54But there have been more cases of foreign nationals being trafficked this year.
01:59Just this month, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights reported on a case involving
02:04a group of migrant fishers forced to work for 15 months without pay.
02:09The association is now calling on the government to better address what it says is the biggest
02:14forced labor issue in the country.
02:17Starting with using events like this one to tackle the most central cases of human
02:22trafficking.
02:23Alex Chen and Rhy says in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.