Migrants from Africa and Asia brought to Ireland to work on trawlers under an official permit scheme have a significant chance of becoming victims of trafficking, according to the seamen’s union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
The union gave formal notice on Thursday that it would be taking the Irish government to court to stop the scheme, which it says is facilitating modern slavery.
The unprecedented move follows the union referring 12 foreign fishermen on Irish boats to Irish police as suspected victims of trafficking for cheap labour in recent months. The Garda National Immigration Bureau’s anti-trafficking unit has already formally identified seven of the workers as suspected victims, and the other five are still under investigation.
ITF is supporting a number of workers in test cases to try to force the government to act on persistent allegations of severe exploitation in its fishing sector. It said it was aware of dozens of other similar cases. At the end of the notice period, it will seek an injunction in the high court to impose a moratorium on the permit scheme.
“We believe the permit scheme is collapsing under the weight of its own injustice,” Ken Fleming, ITF’s coordinator for the UK and Ireland, said.
Special permits were introduced for fishermen from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to protect and regularise the status of large numbers of undocumented workers on Irish trawlers following a Guardian investigation in 2015. The Irish government set up an emergency taskforce in response to the revelations.
The permit scheme that was developed as a result requires trawler owners to apply for permissions on behalf of non-EEA workers they wish to bring in as crew. Previously there had been no legal route for African and Asian migrants to come for work. The government capped the number of permits available at 500, but the industry said at the time it would need at least 1,000.
The permit requires employers to pay the legal minimum wage but ties migrants to their employers, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.
ITF has collected testimony from dozens of Ghanaian, Egyptian and Filipino migrant fishermen which suggests that some trawler companies are paying a fraction of the legal minimum wage, and are regularly requiring migrants to work dangerously long hours, with repeated cases of industrial injury.
“Migrants on trawlers here are working up to 20 hours a day and paid as though they were working eight. Rules designed to protect them go unenforced. Fishermen are afraid to leave exploitative employers for fear of arrest and deportation,” Fleming added.
The union said it had been drawing attention to the exploitation for over 10 years but had been ignored by the government so was now taking it to court, explaining: “It’s an act of desperation because we have nowhere else left to go.”
Some trawler owners also appear to be bypassing the new permit scheme altogether, according to the union. Very few permits have been applied for in 2018, and ITF has collected evidence that owners and recruiting agents are bringing workers in to Ireland illegally via the Northern Irish land border.
The Irish government said: “This government abhors any abuse of proper employment conditions, in any circumstance.”
The department of justice and equality, which is subject of the union’s action, pointed out that the permit scheme was administered by several departments. It added that it did not comment on third party correspondence. “Any changes to the scheme would be a matter for the relevant Departments with the approval of government,” it said.
The problem of trafficking of workers is not confined to the Irish fleet. Arrests have been made in the UK in recent months for suspected cases of modern slavery on fishing vessels.
High street retailers, who are required under the Modern Slavery Act to assess potential exposure to slavery in their supply chains, have also acknowledged the risk of trafficking for labour exploitation in the UK and Irish fishing industry. The prawn, scallop and white fish sectors are all affected.