Trafficked migrant workers abused in Irish fishing industry

brevity

This is a long depressing read. I'd hope that it will start to be highlighted in the Irish press over the next few days/weeks

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/nov/02/revealed-trafficked-migrant-workers-abused-in-irish-fishing-industry

African and Asian migrant workers are being routinely but illegally used as cheap labour on Irish fishing trawlers working out of some of the country’s most popular tourist ports, the Guardian can reveal.

A year-long investigation into the Irish prawn and whitefish sector has uncovered undocumented Ghanaian, Filipino, Egyptian and Indian fishermen manning boats in ports from Cork to Galway. They have described a catalogue of abuses, including being confined to vessels unless given permission by their skippers to go on land, and being paid less than half the Irish minimum wage that would apply if they were legally employed. They have also spoken of extreme sleep deprivation, having to work for days or nights on end with only a few hours’ sleep, and with no proper rest days.

Fleawuss

Depressing reading alright. It's like reading something from the 19th century. Globalization looks more like a scam to rewind 150 years of labour protection legislation.

The Backwards Man

If you substitute Worldwide Shipping Industry for Irish Fishing Industry you'd be closer to hitting the nail on the head. Has been that way since the Middle Age galley slaves, and won't be changing any time soon.

bigpink

Not susprised at all

brevity

The Backwards Man wrote: »

If you substitute Worldwide Shipping Industry for Irish Fishing Industry you'd be closer to hitting the nail on the head. Has been that way since the Middle Age galley slaves, and won't be changing any time soon.

Yup, the guardian had a huge piece a few years on slavery in the shipping industry. Horrible stuff.

Carlos Orange

Not surprising really. People working here illegally are bound to get exploited.

bigpink

And on farms too

nokia69

its time to put and end to the fishing industry

people who pay for fish should be locked up

strelok

nokia69 wrote: »

its time to put and end to the fishing industry

people who pay for fish should be locked up

we need to go after the fish eaters, the fishermen are victims in all this

Galwayguy35

Yes the fishermen are using them for cheap labour, but the workers are illegals who have no right to be here in the first place.

Nodin

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Yes the fishermen are using them for cheap labour, but the workers are illegals who have no right to be here in the first place.

You have some point? Better yet, did you actually read the article?

WarZ

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Yes the fishermen are using them for cheap labour, but the workers are illegals who have no right to be here in the first place.

Yeah its the most vulnerable person's fault for being taken advantage of.

I don't know if they have a right to be here in the first place but that still does not detract from the horrific crimes being carried out against them.

If a 16 year old girl was raped by a man she met in an over 18s nightclub would you reply in the same, cold manner? After all she had no right to be there in the first place...

oppenheimer1

Again, its it takes a British news agency to expose yet another horrible truth to us.

biko

So who should we get mad at?

The captains sees an opportunity to decrease their overhead.
The labourers gets some work.
The customer don't give a toss.

This is why unions are needed, to make sure people are not used and abused in these jobs.

Magico Gonzalez

biko wrote: »

So who should we get mad at?

The captains sees an opportunity to decrease their overhead.
The labourers gets some work.
The customer don't give a toss.

This is why unions are needed, to make sure people are not used and abused in these jobs.

A union would be good, hard to make a union employee mandatory on the boat though. Definitely there should be some ad hoc at sea inspections to check all crew are legal. Documents required or operations shut down.

The irish govt knows full well that these slaves are more or less necessary to keep the fishing industry profitable though. 24 hours labour for buttons keeps many boats out there I suspect, it's not justification but that's what globalisation has to offer us.

Sir Osis of Liver.

biko wrote: »

So who should we get mad at?

The captains sees an opportunity to decrease their overhead.
The labourers gets some work.
The customer don't give a toss.

My local chipper for passing a fish flavoured piece of battered asbestos off as cod.

topper75

WarZ wrote: »

If a 16 year old girl was raped by a man she met in an over 18s nightclub would you reply in the same, cold manner? After all she had no right to be there in the first place...

Wouldn't be the first point I'd make in relation to the situation.

But I'll be damned if I was to listen to someone try and shout down the fact as irrelevant.

Red Kev

Sir Osis of Liver. wrote: »

My local chipper for passing a fish flavoured piece of battered asbestos off as cod.

You need to stop complaining and change your chipper. Vote with your feet/wallet.

Jan Laco

The Backwards Man wrote: »

If you substitute Worldwide Shipping Industry for Irish Fishing Industry you'd be closer to hitting the nail on the head. Has been that way since the Middle Age galley slaves, and won't be changing any time soon.

The typical Irish attitude. Ah sure there's always people doing it worse than us. Sure he murdered two people, I only one...what's the problem??

Nekarsulm

I read Mainchin Magann's book "trawler" , and the exhaustion and sleep depravation all fishermen experience resembles a type of torture. It's amazing far more aren't lost overboard, as after five or six days they are all operating in a manic/zombie like state. And usually crew are paid if the boat makes a profit. If it doesn't make enough to pay the diesel, nobody gets paid.

Grab All Association

Going on years. I remember visiting Passage East in the early 00s and the sheer number of foreigners.

Sort of reminds me of Irish Ferries firing some of its Irish staff and employing people from the Philippines for €1 an hour

lcwill

Nekarsulm wrote: »

I read Mainchin Magann's book "trawler" , and the exhaustion and sleep depravation all fishermen experience resembles a type of torture. It's amazing far more aren't lost overboard, as after five or six days they are all operating in a manic/zombie like state. And usually crew are paid if the boat makes a profit. If it doesn't make enough to pay the diesel, nobody gets paid.

I grew up in a fishing family and have worked out at sea, including on one of the boats mentioned in the article.

I'm not going to pretend there are no cases of the kind of exploitation described, particularly about low pay, but on average the working conditions, long hours, no sleep, no rest, mending nets on the pier between trips, are all standard in what is probably one of the hardest and at times most unpleasant jobs on earth. And on average, most of the workers have been paid fairly. There has been a shift from the traditional system where everyone got a share of whatever profit was made to a wage system, this has pros and cons for everyone - a guaranteed low wage might be better in some cases then the possibility of a high wage but risk of nothing.

There is also a long history of migrants working on the fishing boats on west of Ireland - Portuguese, Spanish, then eastern European and Russian, more recently Egyptian s and now Africans and Asians. Historically they have come to work and make money, maybe have a girlfriend or two in the village, they lived on the boats, kept a pile of cash under their bunks and went home to visit their families now and then or left when they had made enough money. The sinking of the boat in union hall became a story of solidarity between the locals and the Egyptians working on the boats and the good relations they had in the local community were clear.

I can't help wonder if there are a lot of NGOs and health and safety people who have jumped on a few bad stories to push their own agendas.

Certainly there needs to be some protection for the crews but knee jerk suggestions to shut down the whole industry or boycott Irish fish show a lack of understanding of the industry and the people in it and the hardships which have always been endured by fishermen and their families.

Capt'n Midnight

Magico Gonzalez wrote: »

The irish govt knows full well that these slaves are more or less necessary to keep the fishing industry profitable though. 24 hours labour for buttons keeps many boats out there I suspect, it's not justification but that's what globalisation has to offer us.

Why do we need to keep the fishing industry profitable ?

There's a finite amount of fish that can be sustainably harvested. As boats get bigger and more efficient a lot less people are needed to catch the same amount.

Just look at the whole Atlantic Dawn saga. Each trip to Africa it used to take as much as 7,000 local fishermen would annually. (how many are now economic migrants ?) Now know as the Annelies Ilena, it's after being banned from Oz and back here discarding fish
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/skipper-of-world-s-largest-trawler-convicted-of-breaking-fishing-rules-1.2156503

If you allow vessels like this, especially when they've been flouting regulations, they you have to accept that local crews won't be able to compete. It's like expecting a local coffee shop to compete with Starbucks which only paid £4,000 in tax in the between all it's shops in the UK last year. You simply subsidise corporates or allow then to exploit loopholes and then expect locals to compete or even stay solvent.

R.D. aka MR.D

Personally, I was really angry when I read this article.

I work abroad and have been in situations where I've been taken advantage of. It was nowhere near as bad as these men have experienced but is a small taste.

The people who say 'they chose to come here' - well, does that give anyone the right to treat them badly? If I chose to move to Cork, do I have to put up with someone treating me badly?

I've never worked in a country illegally. If they knew that they were going to being working illegally then yes, they are in the wrong but that doesn't give anyone the right to treat them badly. You wouldn't believe how gullible some people can be when a recruiter tells them that it's okay to work on x or y visa. This naivety doesn't give anyone the right to treat them badly.

The article mentions passports being withheld and physical violence and threats. It's absolutely disgusting.

It's very upsetting to read that it is going on in Ireland and there isn't more outrage. Who are these people whose moral compass is so skewed that it allows them to do this to another human being? That's the worst part. These people have no sense of decency.

What can be done? I don't know but what I do know is that this isn't something to be ignored. We are all human beings and deserve to be treated with dignity. If this was happening to Irish people then it would be a different story but it's easy to dehumanize 'foreigners'. That's not a road Ireland should go down, we should want better for ourselves.

Atlantic Dawn

Where were the Navy with all their boardings of these Irish boats, it's a legal requirement that everyone onboard a trawler had BIM training, where were the onshore inspections that everyone was certified? It's a complete joke fully facilitated by the government.

topper75

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Just look at the whole Atlantic Dawn saga. Each trip to Africa it used to take as much as 7,000 local fishermen would annually.[/URL] (how many are now economic migrants ?)

Excellent point. Little guy capitalism is the only sustainable system that will work world wide.

Those super vessels and their activities are a disgrace to humanity.

conorhal

biko wrote: »

So who should we get mad at?

The captains sees an opportunity to decrease their overhead.
The labourers gets some work.
The customer don't give a toss.

This is why unions are needed, to make sure people are not used and abused in these jobs.

What's needed are the equivalent of the boarder force inspections in Australia followed up by severe penalties and jail time for anybody employing and exploiting illegals.
Everybody is focused on the fishing industry, perhaps because it's literally shooting fish in a barrel, but where there may be dozens of migrants subject to this type of abuse in the fishing industry I can guarantee that the numbers working under such conditions in takeaways or as domestics in private homes numbers in the thousands.
Of course nobody wants to lift the lid on that can of worms.

darkpagandeath

Shocking, No regulation or little. Let me guess it's on the whole self Regulation end of things like the banks were :P

JustTheOne

Have they ever seen deadliest catch, lads working 48 hours in a row, man up:)

Grab All Association

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/1654107_550390458390346_437232571_n.jpg?oh=50365b8858f01a6a4730f31c7e255396&oe=56C0852D

A guy on Facebook called Chris Duffy posted this last year.

Sam Quentin

Well if 'some' people where just happy with a wage.. and not try to become millionaires on the backs of others!? then this sort of criminal slavery wouldn't go on........
I hope the boats/skippers involved are cleaned for every fookin penny, because that's the only thing that will hurt these SKUMBAGS....

Kaiser Sosay

JustTheOne wrote: »

Have they ever seen deadliest catch, lads working 48 hours in a row, man up:)

Careful everybody, we got a badass alert.:rolleyes:

wexandproud

had prime time recorded and only watched it last night and the one thing that struck me, is how little the people on the panel knew about the industry especially that guy from the unions , he went on about employees rights and employers duties to them , if he had done the slightest bit of research he would have discovered that crew aboard a fishing vessel are paid a share of the profit after each trip . they are not employed by the boat owner but are classed as self employed as was decided in the high court years ago when revenue took some fishermen to court , so for him to be going on about contracts is pointless , If a trip is very profitable they make good money if profits are low they get very little ,same as anybody aboard ,
the fishing industry is not a 9 to 5 job it involves long hours and dangerous conditions which are the same for everyone regardless of nationality or creed.
while their may be a few who abuse the system the vast majority of boat owners treat the crew very well as they would have served their time on deck and know what its like.. also, i do not know of one who is MADE stay aboard a vessel while in port , they all CHOOSE to do so as it saves them renting somewhere and leaves them more money to send home
If the guardian is that concerned about the fishing industry why is it not investigating the way it is controlled or the huge differences fishermen get for their fish and retail prices , or the fact 11000 euro worth of fish was confiscated last week from one vessel and was supposed to be destroyed but instead was sold on and the money was lodged to SFPA account .On monday of this week there was seven spanish trawlers landing in one port and not one fisheries officer inspecting any of them and at the same pier one irish boat had 4 fisheries inspectors carrying out an inspection