Human Rights

The life of a migrant fisherman employed in Taiwan’s long-distance fishing fleet is fraught with danger and uncertainty. The job means months spent at sea, sometimes working shifts of up to 24 hours straight without rest. When rest is afforded, it comes in cramped, squalid living quarters below deck. On deck, workers could be subjected to all manner of verbal and physical abuse, including that doled out with weapons such as swords or firearms. Such are the revelations brought to light in a recent short film released by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Exploitation and Lawlessness: The Dark Side of Taiwan’s

Multiple generations in Manila are making the most of having to lay their heads amid the mausoleums they call home.

Manila’s rental ‘apartment tombs’ offer a temporary solution to families unable to afford a permanent plot to bury their loved ones. But what happens when the five-year term expires?

Children in Manila’s poorest neighbourhoods are paying an especially heavy price for the anti-drugs campaign of the Philippine president, which has taken thousands of lives since he came to power. Photographs by Paul Ratje

Families who cannot afford to pay funeral parlour expenses to claim bodies of relatives watch them buried en masse.

Read this exciting story from ASIAN Geographic AG 123, 2017.

In Manila, communities rely on the city’s abundant supply of waste to survive, living in – and depending on – pollution.

An Indonesian fisherman’s body dumped at sea, another returned bloodied and emaciated; a domestic helper sexually abused by five employers - two shocking cases that shine a light on the plight of imported workers on the island

Saturday Aug. 17, 2013, was the last day A-dao set foot inside the Hsinchu marble processing facility he had worked at since 2004. It was the start of another 12-hour workday for the 35-year-old Vietnamese factory worker. A supervisor pointed to a vat of paraffin cleaner, still in its hardened form, and instructed A-dao to melt it down with a blowtorch and use it in his janitorial duties. He lit the torch and set to work. But the wax didn’t just melt. It caught fire. A-dao acted quickly, warning his coworkers of the blaze while attempting to retrieve a fire

Aliw returned to the Philippines last month still owed NT$600,000, which she fears she’ll never see. The 31-year-old had worked in Taiwan for nine years — six as a caregiver — often putting in 12-hour days without any time off. But as it became increasingly obvious that her employer, a nursing home, was refusing to pay the overtime that she was owed, she sued. A judge found in her favor. Her employer appealed the decision, and Aliw, not her real name, will not be present at the next trial because her work visa expired last month, forcing her to return

Starving, dehydrated and sleep deprived due to the constant pangs of hunger, Gil L looked around the cramped deck of the small Taiwan-registered fishing vessel he had been bonded to. He wondered how much more he could take before the slave-like conditions of his job, or the captain of the vessel himself, did him in. A native of Iloilo Province in the southeastern region of Panay Island, Philippines, Gil, whose real name has been concealed to protect his identity, had been in Taiwan only a few weeks. What was to have been a life-changing opportunity for his family, dealt a triple

Ruby Comida hails from the Metro Manila city of Paranaque. She is 46 years old, and like many of her fellow Pinays she smiles easily and laughs often, even when recounting dark events, and possesses a strong desire to work to better her circumstances. For her and millions of people from the Philippines, the best way they have found to help themselves and their families is to go abroad to work, to a place where jobs are more readily available, and salaries are at a level where they will be able to send some money back home each month. This

When the Legislative Yuan was first occupied, members of the music groups Masquerader, The Deposers (罷黜者) and Maggot Colony (蠅蛆殖民地) were amongst the first inside. On the third night of the protests, thrash band Bazooka organized an impromptu performance near the protests as a show of solidarity. Though the focus of the protests over the cross-strait service trade agreement has largely been on student involvement, Taiwan’s musicians have also been putting themselves directly in harm’s way. The White Eyes’s singer Kao Chih-wei (高芷瑋), like many musicians, claim to have fallen victim to what seems like excessive force at the hands