Amid the release of a Greenpeace report chronicling cases of physical abuse and financial exploitation of migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, The News Lens reveals the commonplace practice of dumping bodies of deceased migrant fishermen at sea.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/24
By: Nick Aspinwall
Photo Credit: Greenpeace
Wardino figures he came to Taiwan for the same reason as most of his 650,000 fellow migrant workers – to make money and send it home. “In Indonesia, the work is very hard, and the salary is very low,” he says. “I had no choice.”
The 36-year-old had just interrupted his midday nap to amble off the fishing boat and greet us.
Growing up in the town of Brebes in central Java, Wardino has worked as a fisherman since he was 12 years old. He left Indonesia for the inshore vessels of Yilan’s Nanfangao Port in 2010, where he became president of the 100-member Yilan Migrant Fishermen Union (YMFU), the only labor union of its kind in Taiwan, in 2014.
As the bright May sun glistened off his broad shoulders, he spoke with pride about the importance of his role. “I really wanted to help people,” he says. [FULL STORY]
