MIGRANT FISHING WORKERS REQUIRE URGENT ATTENTION, SAY LABOUR EXPLOITATION EXPERTS

Migrant fishing workers require urgent attention, say labour exploitation experts.  Publishing a new briefing, Focus on Labour Exploitation is taking steps to highlight the underbelly of exploitation in the fishing industry’s migrant workforce. 

In a briefing released this week, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) has outlined key issues in the way that migrant fishing workers are treated [1].

FLEX lays out that in order to drive down labour costs, there has been an increasing reliance on non-European migrant fishers in the UK fishing industry. The continuing reliance on an immigration loophole, combined with a lack of worker protections or oversight, poor conditions, and a significant power imbalance between worker and employer has directly led to systematic exploitation of migrant fishers.

This briefing comes in the context of the Employment Rights Bill, which whilst intending to raise the standard of employment rights in the UK, will increase inequality if it doesn’t address the risks caused by restrictive work visas or offer workers practical options to access justice. Migrant fishing workers are one such example that FLEX highlights as being left in the dust [2].

FLEX has laid out key recommendations to close the loophole that leads to exploitation, and ensure that workers have the means to report abuse and secure redress in practice

Nora Böggemann [she/her], FLEX’s Outreach and Engagement Manager for their work in fishing in North East Scotland, said:

“The fishing industry depends on migrant workers, and yet lets these same workers face repeated, systemic abuse and exploitation. It is not just a few bad apples, but a systemic underbelly of exploitation.

“Whether through creating the conditions for employers to step up, or using their own Employment Rights bill to tackle loopholes, the government must address the crisis in the fishing industry with appropriate urgency.. That must include all workers, or risk widening the inequalities that already exist between migrant and non-migrant workers.

The use of a loophole created by the misuse of Code 7 leave (the “Seafarers Transit Loophole”) is designed to allow migrant fishes to transfer onto a vessel to work outside of UK waters. But this can leave exploited migrant fishers with few options and unable to access employment law protections. If migrant fishers are working more than 12 nautical miles from the UK coast, they are outside of jurisdiction. If they are closer, even if for a limited period, they are breaching the immigration rules.

FLEX is currently developing a pilot Worker Social Responsibility scheme with partners and industry in North East Scotland. The driving principle of this model is that workers must have agency in ensuring their rights are enforced. It establishes legally binding relationships between workers and retailers [3].

[1] The briefing is available here: https://labourexploitation.org/publications/closing-the-loophole-exploitation-of-migrant-fishing-workers/

[2] FLEX’s briefing on the Employment Rights Bill is available here: https://labourexploitation.org/publications/employment-rights-bill-tackle-restrictive-visas-or-increase-inequality/

[3] Further information of the Worker Social Responsibility pilot scheme is available on request.