As reported in the last five years, human traffickers subject foreign men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan, and traffickers subject local men and women to forced labor and local women and children to sex trafficking. These boats sometimes do not come back for up to three years at a time. Destination Taiwan is a destination country for women and girls who are trafficked mostly from the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) The ringleaders of this enterprise reportedly subjected several women among the group to sex trafficking; others incurred large debts in Vietnam to pay travel fees and were subsequently subjected to debt-based coercion in sex trafficking and forced labor. Civil society contacts reported DWF ships’ lack of internationally recognized registration systems. The Taiwanese government made significant efforts in investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes over the last year, particularly involving labor exploitation. Authorities encouraged victims to participate in their traffickers’ criminal investigations by allowing them to testify outside of the courtroom or through video equipment. Human Trafficking Domestic workers and home caregivers are also especially vulnerable to exploitation, since they often live in their employers’ residences, making it difficult to monitor their working and living conditions. Taiwan authorities rejected their prior victim designation, after district attorneys conducted two interviews during which they reported carrying out standard victim identification procedures. Strengthen oversight of all foreign worker recruitment and placement agencies and processes to screen for abuse indicators, including illegal fee requirements and contract discrepancies. This figure included 53 individuals tried under the CYSEPA, 47 under the HTPCA (109 in 2017; 44 in 2016), and 13 under other sections of the criminal code. The ship’s captain had subjected an all-Indonesian crew to a range of severe abuses, including forced labor. Law enforcement authorities used standardized questions and evaluation forms when interviewing and referring potential trafficking victims, including among foreigners accused of having committed immigration violations. Foreign workers who leave their contracted positions—nearly 50,000 at any given time—are at particularly high risk of trafficking because they lose their immigration status and access to formal sector employment; some of them initially flee due to abusive work conditions, including forced labor. Authorities officially barred the remainder of the missing Vietnamese travelers from the voluntary departure program, raising concerns that the decision may have dissuaded additional trafficking victims from coming forward. The Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Act (HTPCA) criminalized all forms of trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment and fines up to 5 million New Taiwan Dollars (NT) ($163,460); these penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. In an effort to reduce dependence on recruitment brokers, MOL held informational sessions to educate members of various industries on direct hiring options. Unlike in prior years, MOL reported successfully identifying one forced labor victim through the hotline and referring the individual to protection services. After recruitment fee repayments are garnished from their wages, many foreign workers in Taiwan earn significantly less than the minimum wage. The FA distributed multilingual cards containing information on worker rights and hotline numbers to foreign crewmembers during random inspections of ships docking at certain foreign ports. Following public outcry, the authorities reversed their assessment and imposed a total of 3.75 million NT ($122,600) in fines on the vessel operator and the recruitment brokers; authorities also suspended the licenses of the vessel operator and captain for a period of five months. Despite the reported prevalence of forced labor on Taiwan-owned and -flagged fishing vessels, authorities initiated only three formal trafficking investigations into cases involving fishermen. The Legal Aid Foundation, which the Judicial Yuan funded, continued to seek compensation for hundreds of Indonesian caregivers subjected to wage withholding by an unscrupulous broker prior to the enactment of the HTPCA in 2008. The FA reported inspecting 43 recruitment agencies, of which it fined two (four in 2018; six in 2017) and suspended two businesses for various violations (seven in 2018; five in 2017). More than 26,000 foreign nationals benefited from this program during the first half of 2019—a significant increase from 2,300 in early 2019; authorities reported carrying out standard trafficking victim identification procedures among these individuals, but they did not report identifying or referring any victims to protection services as part of the process. Thousands of migrant domestic caregivers remained at higher risk of exploitation in the absence of specific legislation ensuring their labor rights. Authorities newly prosecuted 122 individuals in 2019 (compared with 113 total in 2018, 248 in 2017, and 128 in 2016). In 2007, Taiwan authorities prosecuted 423 individuals for suspected human trafficking cases, resulting in 74 convictions - including 16 convictions for the sexual exploitation of minors.3 Largest Global Criminal Activities 2. The FA inspector filed a report omitting any mention of abuses and returned to Taiwan, enabling the ship to continue operating. • Improve the effectiveness of anti-trafficking training for prosecutors and judges. Inspectors uncovered 88 violations relating to contract issues, excessive overtime, and wage discrepancies (120 in 2018); authorities referred six of these vessels to prosecutors for investigation into possible violations of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (three in 2018). Authorities increased some law enforcement efforts. • Train maritime inspection authorities on victim identification, referral, and law enforcement notification procedures. Authorities maintained efforts to prevent trafficking. Shelters provided both male and female trafficking victims with medical and psychological services, legal counseling, vocational training, small stipends, language interpretation, and repatriation assistance. Authorities and the Legal Aid Foundation funded by the Judicial Yuan continued to seek restitution for hundreds of Indonesian caregivers subjected to wage withholding by an unscrupulous broker prior to the enactment of the HTPCA in 2008. Some traffickers use Indonesian-owned stores in Taiwan as illegal remittance channels, confining Indonesian workers and subjecting them to sex trafficking. Although victims could receive immunity for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit, authorities continued to detain, fine, and jail trafficking victims in some cases, in part due to limited or discrepant understanding of the crime among front-line law enforcement officers and judges. Taiwan traffickers increasingly use the internet, smartphone apps, livestreaming, and other such online technologies to conduct recruitment activities, often targeting child victims, and to mask their identities from law enforcement. Despite some improvements, civil society groups continued to decry systemic shortcomings in Taiwan’s maritime anti-trafficking law enforcement, exacerbated by DWF ships’ ability to operate without using standard international registration systems and by the absence of a single electronic database containing vessel names, licenses, crew manifests, and authorized areas of operation. Traffickers lure women from China and Southeast Asian countries to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment offers for purposes of sex trafficking. Authorities maintained protection efforts. Taiwan women and children are subjected to domestic sex trafficking, including as part of an increasing trend in which traffickers induce and exploit Taiwan and foreign … Posts about human trafficking written by Editor. Background Prior to the passing of 2009 Human Trafficking Prevention Act (HTPA), human trafficking was underestimated in Taiwan. The 23 individuals tried under HTPCA included nine charged with sex trafficking and 14 charged with labor trafficking. Taiwan is host to more than 700,000 foreign workers, most of whom are hired in their home countries through recruitment agencies and brokers—including some from Taiwan—to perform low-skilled work as home caregivers and domestic workers, or in farming, manufacturing, meat processing, construction, and fishing. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The cases were in process at the end of the reporting period. Taiwan maintained a broker evaluation system initiated in 2015 that could revoke the business licenses of low-scoring brokerage firms. Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) serves as a platform for expanding one of the brightest areas of U.S.-Taiwan relations: cooperation on regional and global issues. As reported in the last five years, human traffickers subject foreign men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan, and traffickers subject local men and women to forced labor and local women and children to sex trafficking. Regulations promulgated in 2017 ostensibly aimed at better protecting foreign fishermen contained provisions allowing brokers to charge unlimited fees for recruitment and unspecified “reasonable service items,” which likely perpetuated debt-based coercion. Taiwan’s laws criminalized sexual exploitation of children by Taiwan passport holders traveling abroad, but authorities have not investigated or prosecuted any child sex tourism offenses committed abroad since 2006. However, during the reporting period, Taiwan enacted an amendment to the Employment Services Act that required employment agencies to report abuses their clients committed against migrant workers—especially foreign household caregivers—or face severe fines. Among these agreements, some did not outline adequate screening for forced labor aboard Taiwan-owned or -flagged vessels docking at certain designated foreign vessel harbor areas. They identified 302 trafficking victims (191 exploited in sex trafficking and 111 in forced labor), of which 216 were referred to shelters for assistance, compared to 328 identified and 298 referred to shelters in 2017. Various agencies continued to fund advertisements, public service announcements, and other materials on trafficking and held trainings for vulnerable populations, including youth, foreign workers, and fishing sector workers. These inspections did not lead to the identification of any cases of forced labor; civil society contacts and families of forced labor victims criticized these efforts as insufficient to prevent the widespread forced labor occurring in the industry. Other HTPCA provisions protected laborers from having to remit “unreasonable payments of debt” to brokers or supervisors but did not clarify what would constitute an unreasonable payment of debt; observers expressed concern that these provisions were too vague to prevent debt-based coercion effectively. Taiwan enacted the ‘Human Trafficking Prevention and Control Law’ in 2009 and Child and Youth Sexual Transaction Prevention Act (1995) to provide platforms Increase efforts to prosecute and convict traffickers under the anti-trafficking law. Clearly define roles and responsibilities for, and increase coordination between, the agencies that oversee Taiwan-owned and -flagged fishing vessels. The FA distributed multilingual cards containing information on worker rights and hotline numbers to foreign crewmembers during random inspections of ships docking at certain foreign ports. Authorities increased some efforts to prevent trafficking. Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act did not protect fishing workers hired overseas, who instead fell under the jurisdiction of the FA. The amendments also banned employers from retaining passports, work permits, or any identity documents of migrant workers without their consent. However, civil society observers were concerned it could not be sufficiently objective or accurate in detecting abuses, including forced labor, because the authorities provided brokers with advance notification prior to inspections. As reported in the last five years, human traffickers subject foreign men and women to forced labor and sex trafficking in Taiwan, and traffickers subject local men and women to forced labor and local women and children to sex trafficking. Human trafficking in Taiwan: | ||Taiwan|| is primarily a destination for men, women, and children trafficked f... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. 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