The China Post
Date: January 23, 2017
By: By Stephanie Chao
“It is difficult to leave this place … I’m often insulted by the captain, too. Here is a victim of
Indonesian seafarer Supriyanto is shown after being beaten by members on the fishing vessel on which he worked on. ( Screengrabs )
violence on this ship,” Indonesian seafarer Mualip said in his recorded video of fellow seafarer Supriyanto, who is shown sitting dazed on deck of a ship that left Pingtung’s Dong Gang harbor in May.
In his narration, Mualip describes Supriyanto as having been beaten by crew members on the ship before recording the video. Supriyanto was sporting swelling and bruising on his face. “Thank you, Supriyanto. I hope you will recover soon,” Mualip said.
It would be one of the last glimpses of Supriyanto’s visage. In another video, he was shown on the brink of death in late August.
With the 580,000 foreign blue-collar workers living in Taiwan (as of 2015, the Interior Ministry’s figures showed there were approximately 630,000 foreigners in total) and a vast number of foreign spouses, with those coming from Southeast Asia making up almost 90 percent (149,213 out of 165,902), one would assume that Taiwan would have already set up a comprehensive system to address the needs of this vast population. [FULL STORY]
