This article is the subject of libel proceedings issued on behalf of Lenny Hyde, Patrick O’Mahony and Labardie Fisher Limited.



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.

Some migrant workers claim to have been deceived and appear to have been trafficked on to trawlers for labour exploitation, an abuse that would be a form of modern slavery.

Our evidence suggests that some boat owners and crewing agencies are smuggling African and Filipino workers in to Ireland through entry points at London Heathrow and Belfast airports, and then arranging for them to cross from Northern Ireland in to the Republic by road, bypassing Irish immigration controls.



Agents and owners appear to be exploiting a loophole designed for international merchant shipping, which allows non-EU seafarers to transit through the UK for up to 48 hours if they immediately move on to join vessels working in international waters. These transit arrangements are not intended for fishermen working in national waters or constantly coming in and out of Irish ports. We understand the loophole was first exploited by agents to recruit migrant workers for the Scottish fishing fleet and the practice appears to have spread from there to the Irish fishing industry.



Many workers describe subsequently living in fear of deportation and being told to stay on their boats in port because the owners would be fined if they were spotted and stopped by the authorities.



Some workers said they were controlled by debt to the agencies that recruited them and charged them substantial and illegal placement fees to arrange visas, jobs and itineraries.



Abraham Okoh*, a Ghanaian fisherman (whose name we have changed), for example, told us he had been bonded by debt to an agent in Accra who had found him a job on an Irish trawler and promised to arrange all visas and travel. He entered via Heathrow and Belfast, and was told to catch the bus from Northern Ireland to the port in Ireland where his vessel was docked.

I worked continuously. We could be awake for two days …

He said he had not understood when he was recruited that he would be working illegally. He had to live on his trawler at all times and was told by the owner to hide and not talk to people in port. The crew would go fishing for four to five days at a time and then be required to mend nets and gear in harbour. “I worked continuously. We could be awake for two days with almost no sleep. It was horrible,” he told us.

European Communities minimum hours of rest regulations, which apply to employees, workers but not the self-employed, require no less than 10 hours in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any seven-day period.

Abraham described being cheated of wages and being hungry when food ran out at sea. Eventually he jumped ship to escape.

He appears to be a victim of human trafficking, a criminal offence – defined as a form of modern slavery in the UK and Ireland – that involves the movement of people for exploitation. Whether the person consented to the journey is not relevant: key factors can include whether they were deceived, or their vulnerability or rights abused; how far they were controlled; and whether working and living conditions amount to exploitation. A person can only be definitively classified as trafficked once his or her experience has been assessed and a competent authority – in Ireland a senior police officer – has ruled.



Okoh’s story was echoed by others, including Antonio Santos* and Diego Cruz*, two undocumented Filipino fishermen, who described similar conditions of extreme sleep deprivation, long hours and low pay on fishing vessels around the Republic of Ireland. They said they too had been brought to the country illegally by agents and boat owners.

As well as worker testimony, our findings are based on extensive undercover interviewing and filming in Irish fishing ports. They are corroborated by detailed documentary evidence – from immigration records, letters and contracts from boat owners and agents, publicly available vessel-tracking data, and official reports into fatal marine accidents involving migrant fishermen – and by interviews with several well-placed sources.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fresh Irish prawns on sale in a Cork market. Photograph: John Domokos/The Guardian

Many migrant fishermen have described a climate of fear and spoke to us only on condition of anonymity; we have changed their names to protect them.

Others told us they were happy to work on Irish fishing boats even though they were paid far less than local or EU crew because it was more than they could earn back home. They nevertheless reported feeling oppressed by their lack of immigration status and the constant need to hide and forego their rights when the industry depended on their labour.

Several sources in both the seafood industry and Ireland’s authorities agreed to talk to us but said they could not go on the record without risk of reprisals.

One skipper in Wexford’s Kilmore Quay, who only employs Irish crew, waved at a West African worker on a neighbouring vessel and told one of our undercover reporters: “You can get one of them for €700 [£501] a month. Would you work for that?”.

Turning a blind eye ...

The International Transport Federation (ITF), the union that first sounded the alarm about conditions for migrants in the Irish and Scottish fishing fleets in 2008, said the Irish government was “turning a blind eye”. The Irish government denied this and said it was taking all trafficking concerns seriously.

The majority of Ireland’s high value prawn and fish catch is exported to supermarkets, restaurants and fish markets across Europe, the Americas and the Far East. The Irish government promotes its €850m ($936) a year seafood sector (pdf) as a vital, sustainable and indigenous part of the economy.

But the case of an undocumented Filipino fisherman, which came to the attention of the Irish authorities only by chance last month, has made the problems in the sector impossible to ignore.



Part two: ‘Where’s my boat?’: Demie’s story

When he landed a job on an Irish fishing boat, Demie Omol hoped he would be able to support his family. But the dream quickly dissipated

On a housing estate in Cork city, Demie Omol, a 39-year-old migrant worker from the Philippines, laid out the dozens of boxes of medicines he has to take, and told us his story. He believes he was trafficked on to an Irish fishing trawler earlier this year to be exploited as cheap labour. He might have remained invisible except that he fell ill and had to be taken to hospital.



Last March, at home in the Philippines, Omol felt hopeful. He had been recruited through the Diamond-H Marine Services agency in Manila, run by the Turingan family, and had secured a crewing job on a fishing vessel which would pay him more money than he had ever earned. “When I was in the Philippines my work was driving a tricycle. I got paid €3 [$3.39] a day.” He was desperate for the promised salary which would support his wife and their three young children. He would have to live away from his family but it was a sacrifice he was ready to make.

The job he was offered was on the Labardie Fisher, a 30-foot Irish-flagged fishing vessel that trawls for luxury fish like cod, monkfish, haddock and plaice. The basic terms of the one-year contract drawn up by the agency seemed clear enough at the time. He would earn $1,000 (£654) a month, plus overtime and holidays, for working 48 hours a week – a rate that works out at less than half what someone on the Irish national minimum wage must be paid. He says he understood that his employers were the owners of the boat, as named in the contract, and that he would immediately join the vessel in Belfast harbour, from where it would set sail for Morocco.

His agency, Diamond-H, said it also understood from the owners that Omol would join the trawler in Belfast harbour to work somewhere in international waters, perhaps off Africa. It told us it knew that the Republic of Ireland does not grant Filipinos the necessary permits to work on trawlers coming in and out of Irish ports. Omol had no paperwork signed by the boat owners, however, and the owners told us he was employed by the agency and not by them.

The boat owners are in fact Pat O’Mahony and Lenny Hyde. The letters said that Omol would be joining the crew of the vessel and it would be “leaving from Belfast harbour” immediately. He was given a UK transit visa, which allowed him a maximum of 48 hours to get through the UK to his boat.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Labardie Fisher. Photograph: MarineTraffic

But when he arrived at Belfast airport, there was no boat in the harbour. Instead, according to Omol, a member of the Turingan family, who own the Diamond-H agency, met him at the airport together with Pat O’Mahony.

O’Mahony recorded his role that evening on his own Facebook page, posting that he was “feeling bored” in Belfast airport waiting for the Filipino to arrive. They took Omol into a car and he was driven overnight across the border into the Republic of Ireland. He did not present to Irish immigration. According to him, he was confused as to where he was being taken and wondered repeatedly, “Where is my boat? Where is my boat?” His answer came in the small hours of the following morning when they arrived in the small village of Crosshaven, south of Cork city, where the Labardie Fisher was docked. Omol was told that by sunrise they would set sail for a four-day fishing trip. Although he had equivalent safety training certificates from the Philippines, he had not undertaken the mandatory Irish safety training for fishermen. But within a few hours of arriving, Omol was at work.

I had no holidays or rest days … We had to prepare gear, fix cables, stitch the nets. It was constant, constant.

The owners said the agency was responsible for all legalities, paperwork and immigration and that it was always clear that he was going to work from Cork. Omol claims he was deceived about his immigration status and about the conditions, which he told us involved working almost without stop while at sea, without the statutory minimum rest periods. “It was continuous working, day and night.”

“I had no holidays or rest days … We had to prepare gear, fix cables, stitch the nets. It was constant, constant.” The Guardian understands that none of the mandatory records of rest for Omol had been logged. The owners vehemently deny that the crew worked such hours.



He lived on the boat. He said he would not always have time for regular meals and he would often eat only one proper meal a day. Most of his pay went straight to his family back home, but a small portion of it – about €200 ($225) a month – was paid to him in cash by the owners. He was warned not to leave the boat without permission, he says. When he did manage to get away, he visited local charity shops to buy secondhand clothes for his children.

Demie Omol’s family. Photograph: Courtesy of Demie Omol

He told us he was paid the basic $1,000 a month as set out in his contract but never received overtime payments or holidays. Omol says a fellow worker on board felt sorry for him because he was only earning about a quarter of the money paid to some local or EU crew members. When he asked, he says his agent then told him that the overtime and holidays were all part of the monthly salary.

The agency’s Manila-based family member Rommel Turingan told us it was made clear that the $1,000 was for unlimited hours. “We explain to the crew the working conditions – we know sometimes 24-hour shifts without rest. They know it is day and night. It’s the same in the Philippines, non-stop on fishing vessels. If you work 100 hours it is [the] same pay.”

Omol’s name did not appear on the boat’s official logbook. It was only the events of early June that drew him to the attention of the authorities. While at sea, he felt sharp pains in his stomach and back, and within days he was feeling weak and breathless. He asked his owners to take him to Cork University hospital. Doctors soon discovered an 8cm tumour in his stomach and told him that he would need surgery. But as an undocumented worker in Ireland he was not entitled to free public healthcare. A social worker and a migrant support worker are understood to have intervened to get him a publicly funded medical card. “I was so very depressed in the hospital, wondering if my life [would be] very short, I felt like I [was] dying. Very, very far away from my family. It was a very bad time for me.”

Omol felt that he was abandoned by the boat owners. “I called them, but no answers. They accused Omol of tricking them and said he must have known he was not fit before he came. Omol said that was not true, and that he had received a full medical certificate before he travelled. His diagnosis was of a kind of gastrointestinal tumour that can be aggressive but symptomless until advanced.

O’Mahony and co-director of the Labardie Fisher Lenny Hyde, vehemently deny the allegations of trafficking and exploitation.

They said Omol’s account was completely inaccurate and defamatory. It was untrue, they said, that they were involved in bringing undocumented crew into Ireland to work illegally. They added that they had told the agency the crew would be working from Crosshaven in Ireland. They denied the Filipino worked continuously without statutory rest periods and said Omol had been fully paid for the period he worked. They later added that a second Filipino crew member, who we understand arrived on the same flights as Omol, had confirmed that he had 14 hours sleep every night, and had eaten three meals a day, including a full “hotel dinner” in the middle of the day. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thi4d_iRzuY&feature=youtu.be SEE FOOTNOTE BELOW] (He has now returned to the Philippines, according to sources.) The owners also said Omol was given the best of medical treatment and that they had been assured by police immigration that there was “no question of human trafficking for labour exploitation”.

Omol hasn’t seen his family since March this year. He said doctors had told him he was not fit to travel home. He has been staying with fellow Filipinos in Cork city for the past few months and recently began chemotherapy. He is anguished about how his family will manage without his financial support. His wife earns €3 a day working as a caretaker, which he says is not enough to feed his children. Sitting in his friend’s living room, he points upwards towards his bedroom where he keeps two large boxes full of secondhand clothes that he will give his children when he returns home. He doesn’t know when that day will come. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3mKlu4sToY&feature=youtu.be SEE FOOTNOTE BELOW]

Part three: the allegations

Omol’s account highlights how vulnerable undocumented workers are. His illness is exceptional, but the conditions he alleges he worked in are not; similar allegations have been made to us by workers in many of Ireland’s leading fishing ports.

We have identified undocumented migrant workers employed in breach variously of safety, employment and immigration regulations on visits to Dublin’s port of Howth, Galway’s Rossaveel, Donegal’s Killybegs, Wicklow’s Arklow, Wexford’s Kilmore Quay, several of County Cork’s most productive ports including Castletownbere, Union Hall and Kinsale, and County Waterford’s Dunmore East.

An Irish official told us “There are a lot of good and decent owners doing the right thing, but they are competing against owners with untrained, underpaid or even unpaid trafficked crews. The fishing industry needs to be split for anything to really succeed: praise the good, shame the bad.”



Separate from the Labardie Fisher, the abuses reported to us – alleged in some but not all Irish trawlers, and in varying combinations – include:

Withholding of pay, arbitrary cuts to rates of pay agreed in recruitment contracts, forced unpaid labour on net and boat repairs in port.



Rates of pay a fraction of the legal minimum and a fraction of what local or EU fellow workers are paid.



Worker passports being withheld by owners/skippers.



Workers denied freedom of movement, told to hide when inspectors or the Navy board, and being required to live onboard because of their immigration status.



Severe sleep deprivation, with workers being required to work in near continuous shift for several days without mandatory rest periods.



Reports of verbal abuse and in occasional cases physical abuse such as slapping.



Exposure to dangerous working practices.



Workers fishing without mandatory Irish safety training certificates.



Workers being left hungry, with insufficient money for food and no access to shops.

Workers living in cramped conditions on vessels in some cases without proper sanitary arrangements.

The evidence presented to us in testimony and documents suggested some migrants were victims of trafficking into and out of the UK and into Ireland.



“There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the plight of trafficked migrant workers,” Parosha Chandran, a leading human rights barrister and UN expert on trafficking, said. “This is a community of trafficked persons whose cases have not been identified or focused on by the governments of Britain and Ireland. We risk a culture where one employer sees another employer under-paying or exploiting their workers and thinks that I can do that as well.”



Part four: a sector all at sea

Amid Ireland’s economic boom, many fishermen gave up life at sea in the years before the global crash, opening the door for migrant workers

The deterioration in conditions for crew on some boats began during Ireland’s economic boom years in the decade leading up to the 2008 crash, according to a former fisherman who asked not to be identified. During the Celtic Tiger period, fishermen started leaving the tough life at sea to work on construction sites and it became increasingly difficult to find local crew. He explained how he had watched some boat owners bring in migrant workers, including EU nationals. Once the pattern had been established, owners worked out that they could get undocumented Asian and African crew even more cheaply. Because they lived on the boats, they were available 24/7. “It’s greed,” he said.

Trawler owners have also described feeling squeezed by the pressure on stocks from overfishing and competition over quotas, leading them to try to protect profits by cutting labour costs. Several of the migrant workers we spoke to described being involved in illegal fishing.



A Filipino worker for example told us that it was a regular event for the some of the trawlers he worked on to sail to an area where there were no prawns and pretend to fish, steaming up and down while transmitting a tracking signal for the authorities, so that they could then move to a fishing ground with good prawns but strict quotas. There they would catch double their quota but mark the prawns down in the electronic log as coming from two different fishing banks. Whenever the Irish navy appeared on the radar, and was likely to inspect, he said he was told by the skipper to hide.

An official source said that the authorities and the industry were aware of labour abuses but reluctant to act: “It’s a can of worms that needs to be looked at. Nobody [in government] is making a decision [to act] because nobody wants to take the decision.”



This view was echoed by another industry expert. In the tight-knit and often isolated communities around the main fishing ports, those prepared to break the law and exploit migrant workers could often do so with impunity. “There’s a culture of omerta. It’s very hard for people to stand up and speak out. Many migrants can’t understand what’s written on the controls on the boat. There’s a language barrier. Even making a cup of tea can turn into a roaring match. It’s leading to accidents.”



There have in fact been repeated fatal accidents involving foreign workers on Irish fishing vessels in the past decade, with major safety failings and breaches of regulations identified in many cases. Those who spoke to us feared conditions made further accidents more likely.

The tragedy that befell the Tit Bonhomme, the Irish trawler that sank in 2012 with the loss of five lives, is still seared in the memories of those in the sector. Of the six crew, four were Egyptian and two, including the skipper, were Irish. The sole survivor was an Egyptian. The vessel, which had been on autopilot, crashed on to rocks just outside the harbour of Union Hall in County Cork when it suddenly veered off course.

According to the official report on the sinking, one of the most significant causes is likely to have been the crew’s severe lack of sleep – just four to five hours in the 40 hours the boat was out. After the accident it emerged that three of the men had not completed the mandatory Irish government safety training and there had been none of the legally required emergency drills in the months leading up to the tragedy. The trawler was only carrying lifesaving equipment for five men, even though there were six on board.

“Fishing is allowed to be dangerous,” said one expert. “What’s the point in having regulations if they don’t enforce them?”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A memorial to the five men who lost their lives on the Tit Bonhomme. Photograph: The Guardian

Changing the culture around safety in the industry appears to be difficult. The courts tend to deal with cases leniently. Earlier this month, a judge dismissed the case of a prawn trawler owner who pleaded guilty to taking an Egyptian migrant crew member fishing when he had no safety training, deciding not to convict him because he was providing employment and had a clean record. Instead, he ordered him to pay €1,000 to a local charity.

In a separate recent case, the skipper of a prawn trawler physically assaulted a government safety inspector on a fishing pier. The Guardian understands that officials had identified safety failings and undocumented migrant crew without Irish safety training on the vessel shortly before the incident. According to a witness account, the skipper repeatedly punched and kicked the inspector, threatened his life and shouted: “You fucked things up for me. Now I’m going to fuck you up … I’m going to fucking kill you.” The skipper pleaded guilty to assault and was ordered to pay just €500 by the court in September. The boat owner told us the incident had not happened on his vessel and had been dealt with by the courts.

Part five: the smuggling route

Few people think of the UK as a focal point for trafficking, yet Heathrow is among the routes used to get undocumented workers into Ireland

Egyptian fishermen without papers tend to arrive by means of well-worn smuggling routes across the Mediterranean and in trucks across the Continent

The UK route through Belfast used for African and Asian workers has become more common since Irish immigration authorities began clamping down on workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) flying in direct, deporting them on arrival at airports in the Republic.

Some have told us they were aware that they were being smuggled; others say they did not understand that they would be entering Ireland illegally or even that Ireland was a different country from Northern Ireland.

The International Transport Federation’s Ken Fleming said: “There is no doubt in the mind of the ITF that there is a well rehearsed system of bringing individuals in to this jurisdiction and in to the domestic fishing fleet on the pretence of a better life. What’s waiting for them is an environment that ties them up in a web. They are trapped. They have no protection because they are here illegally.”



The transit loophole, designed for international merchant shipping, prohibits crew leaving the ship in territorial zones without express permission from the port authorities, explained Diego Archer, a leading expert in maritime immigration law at Fragomen Worldwide. This is why many migrant fishermen are told to stay on ship and hide.



To work on an Irish fishing vessel that operates in or passes through Ireland’s 12-mile territorial waters, or to work on ships docked in Irish ports, non-EEA migrants need an Irish work permit, a visa or immigration permission. But since 2006 non-EEA seafarers have been ineligible to apply for Irish work permits and they are generally not granted visas.



Because Irish trawler crew have traditionally worked as share fishermen – a system whereby workers are paid a share of the money made from the catch, divided in proportions agreed by the owner – they have generally been considered self-employed and responsible for their own tax and insurance. There has been considerable confusion about the employment status of migrant fishermen and some of the boat owners we spoke to said that Irish police and officials had given them inconsistent signals about employment regulations and the immigration status of non-EEA crew. Simply declaring someone self-employed or a share fisherman does not, however, change their employment status, nor relieve their employers of their legal obligations if workers are de facto employed. How a worker is classified in law depends on what degree of autonomy he has. Several undocumented migrants who had been told by owners they were share fishermen said that, in fact, they had no control over their work and were being paid much less than the minimum wage that would apply if they were legally employed.

A pattern of experience emerged in our interviewing of undocumented African and Asian fishermen. Where they had been smuggled or apparently trafficked, their experience on their first boat was the most exploitative, with wages underpaid or unpaid, their fear and confusion greatest and the degree of control exerted over them strongest. Several described finding the courage after enduring terrible conditions for months to jump ship. Where they had found work as undocumented crew on other vessels subsequently, they were gradually able to improve their conditions. Some talked of developing good relations with the better boat owners and some were also able to make home visits and return voluntarily by similar routes. Although they still had to hide from the authorities, some were able to swap living on boats for shared accommodation in flats in port villages.





Part six: open secret

From the international transport union to seafarer’s missions, there is widespread concern that migrant workers are being routinely exploited

Last November the Irish Seal Sanctuary issued a warning, published in the industry’s trade magazine, the Skipper, that illegal “black” overfishing and “modern slavery” were putting the future of the industry at risk.

“Anecdotally we have long been aware of this through speaking with fishermen on a local level and can only conclude authorities are aware?” the charity’s Sea Fishery Advisory group wrote.

Their assessment – that exploitation of foreign labour is an open secret in the Irish seafood sector – is supported not just by the union, the ITF, but also by migrant rights groups and seamen’s missions, charities that work in ports. They have confirmed that they are aware of cases of trafficking and exploitation on Irish and Northern Irish boats but have said that vulnerable workers are often hard to help because they fear reprisals and deportation.

Gráinne O’Toole, workplace rights coordinator for the Migrants Rights Centre Ireland told us her organisation was having increasing contact with non-EU fishermen who were reporting exploitation. “Poor conditions and standards that go unchecked can fast deteriorate into forced labour. We are concerned about the potential for trafficking for forced labour to flourish within the fishing sector and MRCI is currently investigating cases in this regard,” she said.

The Cork-based Irish Immigrant Support Centre (NASC) said it too was concerned about undocumented migrant workers in fishing who appeared to have been trafficked.

Workers themselves talked of their illegal employment and the routes for recruitment being an open secret.



Filipino Raoul Rodriguez*, an undocumented fisherman who has worked on Irish prawn trawlers for several years, said he met “illegal workers” in ports around the country.

I don’t want to go home inside a box …

The work was not only physically exhausting and dangerous but took a mental toll, he said. Loneliness, isolation, loss of freedom, and constant fear of deportation if you step out of line eat into the soul.

“It’s like you are floating because you have not had enough sleep – you are hungry, everything feels bad, your head aches. You feel angry. You are alone and there are so many things that come inside your head and sometimes you hate yourself. I hate this job. But I need money for my kid’s future.”

Rodriguez has not seen his family in four years. During that time he has worked in Ireland without papers for illegally low pay, enduring round-the-clock shifts for days on end while at sea, but he thinks he’s the lucky one.

He was a close friend of Joel Alama, an undocumented Filipino who died in an accident on an Irish fishing boat in August 2015.

Joel Alama, who died in August after an accident on an Irish fishing trawler. Photograph: The Guardian

Alama, 46, is said to have gone into a fish hold to rescue an Irish crew member who had become overwhelmed. The build up of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide gases is recognised as a potentially lethal hazard when dealing with fish. (Official inquiries to determine the cause of the deaths are yet to be completed.) Joel, said to have been a quiet, private person who lived on his boat, was also overwhelmed and died a few days later in a Donegal hospital. He had been fishing without papers around Ireland for years. His status made home visits difficult, but he was due to go back to see his family at last this Christmas.

Rodriguez had been deeply troubled by his friend’s death: “I am lucky that I am going home still alive to my family. I don’t want to go home inside a box,” he said.

Rodriguez said he first arrived in Europe illegally several years ago on a transit visa via Heathrow, on this occasion through Aberdeen, organised by agents in Manila and Peterhead. He worked on Scottish prawn trawlers for a few years, confined to the boats day and night, and was paid just $1,200 a month for unlimited hours. The contracts would mostly be for a year, and then the agents would organise a return to the Philippines and a new contract and transit visa.



He said he suffered verbal abuse and threats from his skipper and witnessed other crew members being slapped.

Eventually he couldn’t stand it any more and decided to jump ship. His opportunity came when his trawler put in to port in Northern Ireland’s Kilkeel. The Scottish crew left and when night fell he and another Filipino crewman grabbed their chance to run. Rodriguez then hid in the mountains outside Belfast in a friend’s house for three months. He was scared that the boat owner would hunt him down.



You are working but your eyes close …

He heard that Irish boat owners were hiring migrant workers so made his way across the border and found himself a job on an Irish prawn trawler. At first he worked in the Republic on similar terms, going out to sea for one or two weeks at a time to undertake gruelling labour for low pay. “You are working, but your eyes close. You sleep, then there’s the buzzer. There’s no choice.”

Later, by now with a boat owner he describes as “good”, he managed to negotiate a switch to the traditional share system.



He has worked on trawlers putting in to many of Ireland’s main ports – from Killybegs to Rossaveal, Galway, Howth, Cork, and Dunmore East – and says many of the foreign workers he meets in those ports are undocumented and often cheated of wages. “They are illegal, the government here does not allow fishermen from a different country [to get visas or work permits] because it’s still all about Irish people.”

He hopes that one day the Irish government will allow non-EEA seafarers to apply for work permits which would afford them the same health and employment rights as local crew members. We asked him what he thought would happen if undocumented migrant workers were not smuggled on to Irish trawlers? “I think most of the boats would be tied up, not sailing, because Irish people are not interested in work in fishing.”



Part seven: what next?

With the Irish government accused of turning a blind eye, the justice department has defended its efforts to address trafficking allegations

Migrant rights organisations would like to see the Irish government take robust action. NASC’s senior legal officer, Fiona Hurley, said the Irish state was “failing to protect undocumented migrants and victims of labour trafficking”.

“Victims are largely invisible in Ireland; this is especially true for those who are exploited in the fishing industry as they are living in remote coastal areas without access to support. The state may be considered complicit in this modern-day slavery by failing to take serious measures to encourage victims to come forward and failing to prosecute traffickers,” she added.



We put to the Irish government the allegation that it was turning a blind eye to the use of undocumented vulnerable workers in the fishing fleet.



The Department of Justice denied the criticisms, saying that “strong legislative, administrative and operational measures have been put in place in Ireland to combat and prevent trafficking in human beings”. Several dedicated anti-trafficking units had been established to tackle the issue and it was a police priority this year as in previous years, it said.

“Any suspicion of human trafficking that is reported to An Garda Síochána (the Irish police) is the subject of a comprehensive investigation. The maritime industry (including fishing) has been identified as an area of potentially high risk for human trafficking due to the nature of the work in the sector, and the employment structures that are used. A project led by An Garda Síochána has been established specifically to address the concerns in relation to potential human trafficking in this sector,” said the justice department in a statement.

The MRCI said that giving undocumented fishermen a way of regularising their status was essential to prevent abuse.

The UK government told us that it was aware of trafficking into Ireland and was acting on it.

Karen Bradley, Home Office minister, said: “We will take the firmest action possible to stop human traffickers operating on our shores.

“Our historic Modern Slavery Act has also given the police greater powers. The UK uses intelligence to understand which routes are being used by traffickers and we have a number of ongoing investigations in relation to abuse linked to fishing vessels.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mending nets quayside. Photograph: Chris Kelly/The Guardian

“We are working closely with our partners, including the Irish authorities, to fight all types of organised immigration crime.”

The Guardian’s revelations come in the wake of a major police investigation into human trafficking and illegal labour in the Scottish fishing sector. A series of raids across England and Scotland by the then Serious and Organised Crime Agency in 2013 led to dozens of migrant workers being freed from fishing boats and several arrests. Those involved cannot be named for legal reasons; police inquiries are continuing. Our findings of conditions in European waters follow a Guardian investigation in 2014 that exposed chattel slavery in the Thai prawn supply chain, which produces seafood for supermarket groups in the UK, the US and Europe.

Campaign groups fear pressures on the seafood industry arising from overfishing have created a crisis of labour abuse which has now become global.

* Names of some migrant workers have been changed to protect identities