UN Special Rapporteurs have raised concerns to the Irish Government about alleged exploitation, mistreatment and risks to people’s safety in relation to the permit scheme for non-EU fishermen here.

The four rapporteurs have written to the Irish Government through its Irish Permanent Mission in Geneva raising information they have received about the Atypical Working Scheme (AWS) and allegations of trafficking in persons and severe forms of labour exploitation of migrant fishermen.

The 2016 scheme was brought in after media reports exposed the exploitation of workers in the Irish fishing industry. It is supposed to allow migrants to live here and work on certain types of vessels with the same rights as Irish workers. However, bodies such as the International Transport Workers Federation had identified a number of potential cases of human trafficking and claimed the AWS had actually increased the fishers’ vulnerability to exploitation.

The four signatories in the letter to the Government are UN special rapporteurs in areas including human rights of migrants, racism, slavery and trafficking in persons.

They are concerned:

About the short timeframe for the application process; lack of awareness of the scheme; lack of information in a language applicants understand; considerable costs related to certification by a practicing solicitor;

That once a fisher’s work permit is granted, workers are eligible to work for only that employer, “effectively tying migrant fishermen, their livelihood and immigration status to such employer and allegedly giving excessive power to potentially abusive employers over workers”;

That AWS does not provide for effectively preventing and combating trafficking nor provide adequate protection for fishermen rights.

They also pointed out that those workers who cannot convince their employers to apply for the AWS scheme have no choice but to remain undocumented leaving them vulnerable to exploitation “as they fear losing their job and consequently being at risk of deportation; therefore they often refrain from filing a complaint against their abusive employer”.

They said data brought to their attention found 80.7% of respondents reported working more than 60 hours per week and 65.3% more than 100 hours per week.

“Similarly, migrant fishermen working under the AWS reported that underpayment of wages is widespread, amounting to an average of €2.82 per hour...way below the legal minimum wage rate, amounting to €9.15 per hour,” say the rapporteurs.

The rapporteurs said the data given to them found 40% of the respondents reported not feeling safe at work and 36.6% had either personally been injured or witnessed others injured at work.

“We were informed that one in four workers interviewed experienced verbal and/or physical abuse and one in five experienced discrimination, which included unequal pay or unfair share of the catch compared to other European fishermen,” they said.

“All this considered, we are concerned that a number of migrant workers in the fishing industry may be victims of trafficking in persons for the purpose of forced labour or labour exploitation.”

The rapporteurs have outlined a number of international laws which they said were pertinent and demanded responses from the Government on all the concerns they have raised.