Cruel Taiwan

Gillet, Pierre (1991) Cruel Taiwan. Samudra Report (4). p. 7. ISSN 0973 1121

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Abstract

“Working on a Taiwanese tuna boat is like being in prison,” says deliberately Alberto de Ledn, a 34 yearold Filipino from Perez Island. Like thousands of other young Filipinos, his dream was to leave the fishing commonly practiced in his village, which provided him with barely enough to live on, and work “abroad”. With long waiting lists, they had to pay a high price to work. Once on the boats, they were subject to killing work, 12, 19 and sometimes 21 hours nonstop, in a sometimes two years trip. A hellhole for miserable pay. Their contract said that after six months they would receive 30,000 pesos (around US$1,000) and a percentage of the take for overtime. The contract seemed to be in order, but in the case of Alberto and the others, the crew was robbed when the got back to shore, receiving only 18,000 pesos (US$600). When they demanded full pay from the agent who recruited them (and had signed their contract), he sued them, knowing full well that these village youth would not get very far with the administration of “justice”.

Item Type:	Articles
Class Number:	920.SAM0032
Keywords:	Samudra Report, ICSF, Taiwan, Death at Sea, Pirates, Human Rights, Conferences, Fishing Rights, Safety at Sea, Working Conditions, Labour
Subjects:	Decent Work
Depositing User:	Varsha V icsf
Date Deposited:	13 Oct 2021 11:04
Last Modified:	30 Mar 2022 18:13
URI:	http://icsfarchives.net/id/eprint/145

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