The interior ministry’s National Immigration Agency has held roundtable talks on preventing forced labor. Industry representatives, government officials, scholars, and NGO activists attended the Friday’s forum, which is aimed at finding ways to better protect the rights of workers in the fishing industry and ending forced labor in supply chains.
Serious allegations of abuse and mistreatment of foreign workers have been brought up against Taiwanese companies in the fishing industry in recent years. This latest forum hopes to address issues of workers’ rights and human trafficking by combining public and private efforts.
A number of senior officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the National Immigration Agency attended the event, as well as Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Jeremy Cornforth and other diplomats.
Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng says that last year Taiwan began introducing measures aimed at improving workers’ rights, preventing human trafficking and ending racial discrimination.
National Immigration Agency representatives say they hope this even can deepen the dialogue between entrepreneurs, officials, scholars, and NGOs, improve understanding of the industry, and shore up the government’s resolve to fight human trafficking.