MIGRANT WORKERS CAUGHT ON HOOK

 Big Issue North article, 17-23 October 2023 

Overseas seafarers face harm and exploitation

Industry uses loophole in employment rules

 “I am a deck hand with other foreign nationals on a British fishing boat and we work 12 hours before getting a four-hour rest, then have to work another 12 hours and so on,” said Kofi from Ghana, who is earning around £3 an hour for a working week exceeding 100 hours.

Kofi’s situation appears to be common among highly skilled migrant fishing workers who are being exploited by the fishing industry employing them using seafarers’ temporary transit visas.

The majority of seafarers affected are from the Philippines, Ghana and Indonesia, who do not have an automatic right to work in the UK. “The job was initially fine,” said Kofi. “I like working with different nationalities

We must work together as a team because it is dangerous but I do not have the required safety certificate. There is a course I should be sent on to get it. We’ve had no safety or fire drill. What would we do in an emergency?”

Racist abuse

Kofi began working on fishing and trolley vessels in 2006 before attending Ghana Maritime University where he gained a certificate in international law for seafarers.

Married and with children, he came to the UK earlier this year when a friend set up a one-year job for him with a fishing boat owner.

When the Marine Coastguard Agency (MCA) surveyed his fishing vessel Kofi and fellow overseas workers were forced to go ashore.

This is problematic for those employed under the temporary transit visa scheme as employment is on the basis that their vessel operates “wholly or mainly” outside UK territorial waters. If caught ashore by Border Force, Kofi faces being deported.

Following their initial visit, the MCA and Border Force returned when Kofi was on board the vessel. “I was interrogated about my situation,” he said. “I have a family to consider and so said little and was allowed to continue working.” The MCA told Kofi’s employer to issue him with a new contract due to the regular port visits of the foreign workers on board the vessel.

No contract has been issued. Kofi, who has faced racist abuse from his skippers for speaking out, complains of the long hours he must work at sea, with a continuous rota of 12 hours on and just four off. “Legally we should work six hours and then rest six hours,” said Kofi. “Other Ghanaians have told me it is better on their boats. On our boat British workers work 12 hours on and 12 hours off.”

The migrant seafarers should be transferred to the Skilled Worker visa scheme.This would ensure they earn at least the UK national minimum wage and have access to medical care. It would also permit workers to speak openly, transfer to better employers and assert their rights to work in safe conditions.

Physically demanding

Another seafarer, Antonio from the Philippines, described his experiences as “modern slavery”.

He said: “When we return from sea to land scallops there might be 90 bags and unloading is hard work due to the constant lifting of the fish out of the boat to be packed in ice and sent to market. We hardly have time to eat and once we are finished another skipper comes aboard and we go straight back out.”

Working as a deckhand at sea is physically demanding. Vessels, which are like mini floating factories harbouring and preserving the fish until they return to port, have heavy gears, crab pots and other apparatus.

Yet according to Antonio, he and his fellow overseas workers have been reduced to melting ice to drink water and heating water up on a fire to wash themselves. Even when boats spend time due to bad weather in ports such as Grimsby or Peterhead there can be little time for rest. “We do many jobs such as washing rooms and making repairs to broken pipes,” said Antonio. “We don’t get paid for this work.”

Forced labour

Migrant workers earn around £1,200 a month. British deck hand workers, who are self-employed, are paid a share of the profits from each catch and are believed to average around £40,000 annually in a good year.

The situation of migrant fishing workers is highlighted by the International Transport Federation (ITF) report A One Way Ticket to Labour Exploitation – which examines how visa loopholes are being used to exploit migrant fishers – and a Nottingham University Rights Lab report, Letting Exploitation off the Hook?

In these reports 35 per cent of fishers reported experiencing regular physical violence. The average salary for migrant fishers working in the UK was £3.51 an hour and 19 per cent of participants reported conditions comparable to forced labour.

The reports claimed that as a result of legal loopholes, non-EEA migrants with transit visas have no legal authority to enter the UK without permission when returning to port and are forced to live on board the vessels.

The reports says vessel owners and recruitment agencies issue work agreements that are non-compliant with UK regulation, causing migrant fishers to fall foul of immigration law. But more than 60 per cent of fishers, including UK nationals, said they would never report a grievance for fear of blacklisting.

Chris Williams of the ITF said: “There is a horrific catalogue of abuse. Immigration policy puts skippers and boat owners in a strong position of power, behind which lies the workers’ fear of being deported.

“A hostile environment has been created by the government which is so antimigrant. By issuing temporary rather than skilled visas – and most of the workers are skilled – it reduces immigration statistics. Thousands are working under the radar.”

 ‘Not fit for purpose’

The ITF is planning a campaign on fairness and fishing.

 “Key to this will be attempts to make supermarket customers aware of what is happening and get them to pressurise the major retailers into having a supply system that does not include forced and trafficked labour, and which includes grievance mechanisms that are trusted by migrant workers,” said Williams.

The Department for Transport, which manages the MCA, and Defra directed Big Issue North to the Home Office for questions about working conditions and temporary visas.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Transit visas permit foreign nationals to pass through the UK to a country outside of the UK within 48 hours. They do not permit working in the UK, either on land or in our territorial waters.

“The Modern Slavery Act gives law enforcement agencies, including the police and Border Force, the powers to investigate modern slavery offences at sea, including the power to stop, board, divert, detain and search vessels, and to make arrests and seize any relevant evidence.”

 According to the spokesperson Border Force is making effective use of powers in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to detain vessels where modern slavery is suspected. “Border Force has collaborated with the National Crime Agency to deliver joint safeguarding training for fishing crews and produced briefings for the operational frontline to increase awareness,” said the spokesperson. In May the Fishermen’s Welfare Association spokesperson Elspeth Macdonald said she welcomed ITF’s conclusion that the transit worker visa “is not fit for purpose”.

Macdonald claimed the industry is improving working conditions and that the MCA had carried out unannounced visits to hundreds of fishing vessels and not found any problems with working or living conditions aboard.

 The Fishermen’s Welfare Association did not respond to Big Issue North’s request for further comment.

Migrant workers are not banking on any sudden changes to the visa system.

Kofi said: “I have no option except to see out my contract. I was approached to work on another boat but if I do transfer I fear what my current employer would do.

“I am trying to find a better employer for when I hope to return in 2023, because whilst I would like to see the visa scheme changed to reflect our skills that might not be done immediately.”

Names of workers have been changed

MARK METCALF