The ITF informed that the Irish government has committed to bring in new measures to protect migrant workers in the country’s fishing industry. The ITF was concerned about the exploitation of workers from Africa and Asia in Ireland’s fishing industry.
Namely, the Irish government introduced a special work permit scheme for migrant fishers. However, unscrupulous employers were undermining this scheme and were exploiting workers even more.
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In fact, the Irish police identified 26 suspected victims of modern slavery in the Irish fishing fleet in the last year. In addition, in February this year, United Nations rapporteurs issued a rebuke to Ireland warning that the permit scheme was violating international human rights law.
After the ITF took the Irish state to court regarding this issue, the government agreed to introduce measures to protect migrant fishers’ rights and prevent them from trafficking and modern slavery.
Specifically, non-European workers will no longer be tied to individual employers, and will be free to leave a boat for other work if they experience exploitation or abusive conditions without fear of deportation.
There will also be measures to strengthen regulations on pay, hours and conditions on fishing vessels, inform migrant fishers about their rights and deal with employers who breach the work permit scheme.
Ken Fleming, ITF UK and Ireland coordinator, stated that:
This agreement is a significant step forward for the rights of migrant fishers in Ireland … We will continue to monitor things closely
