The Irish government was aware of the trafficking of migrant workers into its fishing fleet as long ago as 2010 but failed to tackle the problem. Internal documents obtained by the Guardian following a freedom of information (FoI) request show that, under the previous administration, trafficking of fishermen from countries outside Europe was raised by officials tasked with investigating illegal employment and the flouting of immigration laws in the sector.

A Guardian investigation last month uncovered allegations of the widespread exploitation of undocumented Africans and Asians and suspected cases of human trafficking in the Irish prawn and whitefish fleet. In response to our report, the Irish government held emergency cabinet discussions and established an interdepartmental taskforce to devise urgent solutions to the problem.

But the FoI documents, released to us by the Irish Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, show that the Irish government had known of the problems for years. Officials had begun drafting a work permit scheme for seafarers to address illegality in 2008. Difficulties over the division of responsibilities between government departments and bodies, and practical objections, were still being discussed in 2010. The scheme remained shelved until the Guardian’s revelations in November 2015.

The taskforce set up in the wake of our investigation was chaired by the minister for agriculture, food and the marine, Simon Coveney, and it issued its report (pdf) earlier this week. The report detailed plans to introduce a bespoke permit scheme to allow boat owners and non-European migrants working for them illegally to apply for permission to remain on Irish vessels.



The taskforce has yet to address the problem of human trafficking in the fleet, however. Instead, it appeared to push the problem beyond parliamentary elections expected in February. “A new national action plan to combat trafficking will be published in the coming months,” the report said.

The Irish government’s failure to tackle the problem of human trafficking was criticised by the US State Department’s former ambassador on trafficking and president of the human rights watchdog Freedom House, Mark Lagon. The taskforce report has come up with “a purgatory position in which to place workers without regularising their legal status”, he said. “Saying this is a problem everywhere in the world does not mean it does not need acute attention in Ireland. When people are in a grey zone where their immigration status is vulnerable, it can be exploited grossly. The report doesn’t go far enough; the issue they should be giving attention to is the one of human trafficking.”

An “atypical worker permission mechanism” will be available for up to 500 foreign fishermen to work for a 12-month period. It can be applied for by Irish vessel owners so long as they produce a contract of employment certified by a solicitor, deposit a copy of it with the government, take out health insurance for the workers, and agree repatriation costs. Owners will be required to pay the legal minimum wage, deduct tax and national insurance, arrange safety training and follow the law on rest periods at sea.



The taskforce report recognised that Irish boat owners have failed to declare the extent to which they now rely on non-European crew. Logbooks submitted by trawler owners to the authorities in the first half of 2015 claimed 62% of crew were Irish nationals, with 9% recorded as coming from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and 11% of unknown nationality. However, official inspections of fishing vessels in the same period found 42% were from outside the EEA and just 32% were Irish.



The Irish fishing industry welcomed the permit scheme, which it described as a “win-win” for boat owners and migrants. Francis O’Donnell, chief executive of the Irish Fish Producers’ Organisation (IFPO) said: “People can now stop looking over their shoulders and get on with their respective businesses. The agencies involved in the taskforce acknowledged from the outset that a pragmatic approach was required to resolve this issue, and in particular credit should be given to Minister Coveney who steered this sensitive issue to a satisfactory conclusion in such a short timescale.”

He added that he hoped the cap at 500 permits would be enough. IFPO had argued earlier that 1,000 permits would be needed to account for all the non-EEA fishermen currently used in the fleet.



Diego Archer, a leading expert in international maritime immigration at the US firm Fragomen, said the mechanism devised by the Irish government would close the legal loopholes.

Migrant rights groups in Ireland, however, were dismayed by the government’s new scheme, which they said would leave migrants vulnerable to exploitation and would be largely ignored.



“We welcome the swift publication of the report, however, the fact that this scheme does little to address or provide an effective remedy for those who have been exploited in the industry is a monumental failure,” said Fiona Finn, chief executive of NASC, the Cork-based migrant support organisation.

Migrant Rights Centre Ireland was also concerned that the proposals did not address the problems fully. “We are disappointed that the recommendations we submitted are not reflected,” said its rights coordinator, Gráinne O’Toole.

The International Transport Federation (ITF) predicted that boat owners would not apply for permission for African and Asian workers in any number because they would baulk at having to pay migrants properly and at the other considerable costs the scheme would impose on them. ITF’s Ken Fleming said he feared that a lack of clear independent enforcement would also mean the industry carried on with “business as usual”.

The Department of Justice and Equality told us that the understanding of human trafficking in to the Irish fleet within the department at the time had been “generalised”, based on the potential for trafficking for labour exploitation and media reports, but that it had “no evidence of wide-scale trafficking”. It added that allegations of human trafficking were always fully investigated by the Irish police when they were reported.

• This article was updated 18 December 2015 to include a response from the Irish government