Fears over low take-up of permits for Irish fishing industry migrant workers
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Version 0 of 1. Undocumented fishermen working on Irish trawlers and their boat owners have been given a final chance to regularise their position this month as the Irish government extended the deadline for them to apply for a new permit scheme amid fears that take-up has been too low. An emergency taskforce was set up by the cabinet last year to tackle the illegal use of Asian and African migrants in the Irish fleet, following a Guardian investigation. The Irish government said in February that it would issue up to 500 specially created work permits for fishermen from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) after allegations that they were being exploited as cheap labour. Ireland’s Department of Justice said on Wednesday that only 107 applications had been granted. Meanwhile there were reports of migrant fishermen who had worked in the state illegally for years being dumped by boat owners. There was also confusion about how and when the authorities would enforce the new arrangements. Senior figures in the industry had predicted that at least 1,000 work permits would be needed to ensure the protection of all non-EEA fishermen who were estimated to be working in the Irish fleet. “Take-up has not been as strong as I would have thought,” said Francis O’Donnell, the chief executive of the Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation. “It should have been higher.” He added that there had been an increase in the numbers of eastern European fishermen, who do not need work permits, in Irish ports. Fishermen who have a work permit will be guaranteed the national minimum wage of €9.15 (£7) an hour. Before applying, they must have a year-long contract certified by a solicitor and agreed with the boat owner. They also need to have completed the mandatory Irish basic safety training. The taskforce initially said owners would have to pay full private health insurance; the Department of Jobs says it has now dropped this requirement and the Department of Health has confirmed that permit holders will be eligible for publicly funded healthcare. Some workers who have applied for permits have welcomed the scheme because it will give them the freedom to travel. “I am very happy,” said one fisherman who asked to remain anonymous. The owner of the boat he is working on has agreed to pay all the costs of the application. “I have not been home for five years and I only see my family on Skype. My plan is to go home this Christmas.” Eibhlin O’Sullivan, a solicitor in Cork who is processing work permits, said some of the non-EEA fishermen working off the southern coast of Ireland said they intend to return to their families for a holiday if their permits are issued. “I’ve seen a wide array of nationalities apply,” she added. “Egyptians, Indonesians, Filipinos, Ukrainians, Ghanaians, Sri Lankans – it’s been a geography lesson for me. It’s quite surprising.” Another Cork-based solicitor, Dermot Conway, said he had dealt with more than 100 applications from non-EEA fishermen, including Egyptians, Indonesians and Nigerians, and that the process had mostly been smooth. “There have been a couple of hiccups with crew members who had gone away, attempted to regularise their position through other ways, and in large part the Department of Justice is trying to deal with that.” While welcoming the extension to the scheme, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland said some migrant fishermen seeking permits have been dumped by their employers. “Some boat owners are refusing to enter into the scheme,” said the centre’s rights co-ordinator, Gráinne O’Toole. “We have found some workers who have looked for their employers to help them apply for this scheme, and they were then let go.” This view was echoed by the Cork migrant support centre Nasc. Its chief executive, Fiona Finn, said: “There has been poor uptake of the regularisation scheme for migrant fishermen who are undocumented in the state. Their employers were unwilling to cooperate. As a result a whole cohort of the most vulnerable and exploited migrant fishermen have been locked out of this scheme.” The sailors’ union, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), has visited five ports in recent weeks and said take-up was poor, with some boat owners refusing to pay the extra it would cost to employ non-EEA crew legally on the minimum wage. Several workers reported having been summarily dismissed by owners when they asked to apply for permits, according to ITF’s co-ordinator for Ireland, Ken Fleming. In December, the government said state enforcement agencies would provide a “rigorous and effective inspection system” before the scheme commenced. But O’Toole expressed concerns that if the authorities uncover undocumented fishermen, it will be the workers who face penalties rather than the unscrupulous boat owners. “Compliance is an issue. Our main concern is that workers are not penalised by the failure of their employers to apply,” she said. “We want them to be protected.” One boat owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said that once the authorities begin to inspect the trawlers for permits it will become “too risky” for owners to employ undocumented fishermen. Responsibility for inspecting trawlers and enforcing Irish law falls between several bodies and the taskforce recommended they all sign a memorandum of understanding about how the scheme would be policed. Until last week the Department of Transport’s Marine Survey Office, which employs boat inspectors, had refused to sign it. They were strongly criticised by Labour Senator Ged Nash who was involved in the taskforce last November when he was a government minister. “The MSO were outrageously unhelpful and gave every reason as to why they could not enforce the new regime,” he said. The deadline for the scheme has been extended until the end of June, after which only fishermen living outside Ireland can apply. |