Trafficked migrant workers abused in Irish fishing industry

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.