Penghu County kept closing migrant fishers' complaints that one boat owner beat them without investigating, and Taiwan's labor ministry never stopped it, the Control Yuan found.
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In October 2025 Taiwan's Control Yuan (the constitutional ombudsman/audit body), in an investigation by members Wang Mei-yu and Wang You-ling, issued corrective measures against the Penghu County Government and the Ministry of Labor. It found that of 18 foreign fishers a Penghu-registered vessel hired over three years, more than nine complained through the ministry's 1955 hotline of assault or being driven off the boat; the county repeatedly closed the cases once the employer agreed to a transfer, without interviewing the employer or holding him to account, and accepted his claim that a fisher whose work permit had lapsed went to sea without working, which the Fisheries Agency itself called implausible. The hotline condensed and distorted complaints, failed to flag the repeat employer, and the ministry did not mark him high-risk until late 2024; three fishers who complained of beatings were then sued by the employer for NT$80,000 each for allegedly striking, with documents they signed before coming to Taiwan cited against them, and in Kaohsiung District Court mediation each agreed to pay NT$50,000.
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