THE trafficking of migrants to work on Irish trawlers was first seen in Northern Ireland before spiralling into an island-wide crisis, it has been claimed.
Ken Fleming of the International Transport Workers’ Federation told The Irish News that it has traced the initial use of poorly-paid illegal migrants to fishing trawlers in Scotland and Northern Ireland in 2005/6, but that boat owners in the Republic quickly followed suit.
“Word spread very quickly because the fishing industry is a very close community in Ireland,” Mr Fleming said.
He was speaking after The Guardian newspaper claimed that men from Africa and Asia were being illegally brought to Ireland via London Heathrow and Belfast airports.
The newspaper suggested that the Republic’s immigration controls were being bypassed by smuggling workers by road across the border.
It is alleged men were then forced to work in conditions where they were deprived of sleep and were victims of physical and verbal abuse, and were made to hand over their passports to employers.
The Irish government announced on Tuesday it was setting up an inter-departmental taskforce to examine the claims.
It will include representatives from the Republic's departments of justice, jobs, transport, tourism and marine, as well as the Attorney General’s office and An Garda Síochána.
Members of the taskforce, which will be chaired by the Republic’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney, are set to hold their first meeting on Wednesday “to formulate a co-ordinated and effective cross-government approach to the matter”.
Mr Coveney has denied that the government turned a blind eye to the problem in the past.
On Tuesday his cabinet colleague Brendan Howlin described people trafficking as “one of the most egregious crimes of our times”.
SIPTU has called on Mr Coveney to introduce employment protection legislation, proper training and rigorous inspection processes for migrant workers employed in the fishing industry.
Spokesman Gerry McCormack said reports of widespread abuse of migrant workers were “not surprising to those with a knowledge of the sector”, and called for legislation to provide “decent pay and conditions, proper training for workers and an appropriate inspection system to ensure compliance” on trawlers.
Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris said the majority of those involved in the Irish fishing industry were “decent, hard-working people, struggling to make a living” but anyone involved in exploitation and abuse should be “named, shamed and condemned”.
