Migrant fishermen from Asia and Africa are reporting “alarming” allegations of abuse on Irish trawlers, despite government efforts to regularise illegal working in the sector, former jobs minister Ged Nash told the Irish Senate on Wednesday.
Senator Nash, who was one of the ministers charged with tackling exploitation in the Irish fishing fleet after a Guardian investigation in 2015, said a new scheme introduced to give migrant fishermen legal status and protect their rights was not working. He called for the government to scrap and replace it urgently.
His intervention comes as his old department admitted to the Guardian that one in four non-European Economic Area (EEA) migrant fishermen working on boats in the second half of last year was still employed without the legally required permits. The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation also said inspections had found a “25% non-compliance rate” with the regulations in respect of pay, holiday, records and rest.
Nash told the Irish senate that he had heard testimony from workers who were being paid the legal minimum wage for a 39-hour week when they said they were in fact working 100 hours or more a week. In other cases, migrant workers in dispute over wages with owners were effectively “on the run” he said because they had no protection from the state.
The alarm over continuing illegality and exploitation of migrant fishermen in Ireland has also been raised by human rights organisations and the fishermen’s union.
The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland conducted a series of interviews with migrants working in all ports around the country over the last four months.
“We have found staggering abuses of employment rights,” said MRCI coordinator Gráinne O’Toole, who said more than 70 migrant fishermen had contacted her organisation for help in the last year. “Many earn well below minimum wage, work very long hours, do not receive rest breaks and the level of workplace accidents is very concerning.” The Cork-based migrant support centre, NASC, said it had seen a similar picture last year.
In 2015, the Irish government announced a new work permit scheme to regularise undocumented fishermen from outside the EEA working on Irish-owned vessels. The initiative was launched after a Guardian investigation highlighted alleged abuses.
Early last year, 500 one-year permits were made available to owners who were required to pay the statutory minimum wage to migrant workers and provide them with a solicitor-backed contract. Francis O’Donnell, chief executive of the Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation, said at the time that 1,000 work permits would be needed “to get everybody covered”. According to a spokesperson from Ireland’s Department of Justice and Equality, just 182 permits have been granted to date. O’Donnell said he was not aware of boats breaking the regulations but any that did so acted without the support of his organisation.
MRCI’s O’Toole said: “The scheme is facilitating the use of cheap labour and we are extremely concerned about the lack of enforcement by Irish authorities.”
On Monday, 68 migrant fishermen attended a meeting in Dublin organised by the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Only one person said he had a valid work permit and some of the workers, who were mainly from Egypt, alleged a range of employment abuses including low pay, threats of deportation and continuous “24-hour” working with only 30 minutes’ rest in that period. One undocumented Egyptian said that last year he worked 150 hours a week on a trawler but was not paid properly. “We are slaves working,” he said.
The ITF’s co-ordinator for the UK and Ireland, Ken Fleming, called for all undocumented migrant workers in the Irish fishing industry to be “given leave to stay”, adding that if owners don’t comply with labour laws then their fishing licences should be withdrawn.
Nash said that some boat owners “clearly don’t accept that the rules have changed”, creating unfair competition for boat owners who are treating migrant workers fairly and lawfully and want the permit scheme to operate properly.
Last October, Irish authorities conducted a series of raids on trawlers in some of Ireland’s major fishing ports, including Howth in Dublin and Castletownbere in County Cork. They said they found no evidence of labour exploitation, slavery or human trafficking. O’Toole described the lack of detection as “very alarming” and called for better enforcement.
Responding to the latest allegations, the Irish department of jobs said that in the second half of 2016 the enforcement agency, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), carried out 136 inspections covering 63% of the vessels eligible for the permit scheme. It found 25% of non-EEA workers did not have valid permits. The WRC also found “a 25% non-compliance rate” during inspections in relation to the mandatory terms of the permit scheme on pay, records and holiday.
The department added that the WRC is committed to continuing efficient and effective enforcement of employment permits and employment rights and will prosecute where vessel owners continued to employ those without legal status.
Migrant fishermen who have been working on Irish-owned vessels talked to the Guardian earlier this month about current conditions. Undocumented fisherman Lorenz Santos* was working on a trawler when the new permit scheme was opened last year. He said he repeatedly asked his employer to get him a work permit. After months working on the boat, Santos said the owner began to deduct 200 euros a month from his wages, allegedly to pay for a new permit, but that this was after the scheme had closed and he never got his documents. Santos explained that his three children, who he hasn’t seen since 2015, depend on his income for their education.
Like Santos, Ramon Mendoza* has been sending his earnings home to support his children, whom he last saw in 2011, when he arrived in Ireland to work in the industry as an undocumented fisherman. Last year he worked on a prawn trawler; he and said that the conditions were “very bad” and that he worked continuously, repeatedly going 24 hours without mandatory rests. “I was very, very tired,” he said.
When the permit scheme opened, Mendoza asked the boat owner to apply for him. He said the owner deducted nearly 1,500 euros from his wages to pay for the permit and the solicitors’ fees. His permit was successfully processed but Mendoza said the owner refused to give it to him.
Last autumn, Santos and Mendoza were working on vessels when the Irish authorities conducted a labour inspection. Because they were unable to produce work permits, they said they were issued with a warning that they could be deported and immigration officials confiscated their passports. They are not allowed to work and have to report regularly to the authorities.
“It’s so bad what has happened to me,” said Santos. “I have no money. I am worried.” Although Mendoza officially has a permit, because the boat owner refused to give it to him he was unable to show it to the authorities and he now cannot work. “ “It’s very difficult, very bad,” he added Mendoza. “What can I do?”.
Eddie Martinez*, a fisherman who has worked in the industry since last year, said he had a “good boss” who applied and paid for his work permit. Martinez is injured following a serious accident at sea but says he will return to the boat when he is better. His boat owner continues to pay him a weekly wage.
* Names have been changed