Taiwan’s efforts to combat human trafficking have been recognized internationally for 12 consecutive years. The U.S. Department of State released its 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), ranking Taiwan as a Tier 1 country out of more than 180 countries assessed. It demonstrates that the Taiwanese government and NGOs still maintained a close partnership in actively promoting anti-human trafficking measures during the pandemic in 2020.
The Ministry of the Interior stated that the protection of human rights is the core value the Taiwanese government greatly attaches importance to, and combating human trafficking is one of the concrete actions to demonstrate that Taiwan is a nation founded upon the principles of human rights. The government has been working on improving its strategies to prevent human trafficking. For instance, when the US added fish caught by Taiwan’s deep water fleets to its list of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor at the end of September 2020, the Executive Yuan immediately led the Council of Agriculture and relevant ministries to formulate the ‘Fishery and Human Rights Action Plan’ in October and gave priority to improving the protection of the rights of migrant fishers in the distant water fishery.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed human mobility in the past two years. The Ministry of the Interior, to combat human trafficking and better coordinate integration efforts across agencies, formulated “2021-2022 Anti-Exploitation Action Plan” at the end of December last year which includes 25 projects and 76 correspondent specific strategies. The aforementioned two action plans aim to enhance the protection of victims’ rights and the efforts of combating human trafficking.
The Ministry of the Interior indicated that, to those prioritized recommendations raised in the TIP report, such as increasing efforts to investigate Taiwan-owned and -flagged fishing vessels suspected of forced labor in the DWF, implementing port entry restrictions for Taiwan-flagged, foreign-owned fishing vessels whose operators have a trafficking criminal record or have otherwise been implicated in trafficking crimes overseas, and strengthening oversight of all foreign worker recruitment and placement agencies, most of these recommendations have been included in the aforementioned action plans and carried out by the authorities concerned.
The MOI emphasized that Taiwan greatly valued the U.S.A.’s recommendations. The Government will carry out the action plans and monitor performance through ‘the Executive Yuan Coordination Committee on Prevention of Human Trafficking and Elimination of Racial Discrimination’. The Government will strive to eradicate human trafficking through inter-agency coordination and public-private partnerships.
Last but not least, the Ministry of the Interior calls on everyone to join in the fight against human trafficking, which requires enduring efforts and close cooperation between “You and Me”, “the public and private sectors”. If you believe someone may be a victim of human trafficking, please call the Human Trafficking Hotline at 110, 1955 or 02-23883095.