“AFTER SEVERAL YEARS working back and forth as a seaman, it’s the first time that I experienced an employer that abused me. They mistreated us.”
He came from a family familiar with seafaring and after his brother worked on boats in Europe, Lloyd followed in his footsteps. Paid just Php 380 per day at home, like many other migrant workers from the archipelago, he left the country to seek better-paying jobs abroad. Over the past six months, as part of our HANDS ON DECK cross-border investigation, Noteworthy teamed up with journalists in both the Philippines and Ireland to investigate exploitation in the Irish fishing industry. We can now reveal:
Lloyd said that he experienced racism on the ship, with around €1,200 being lodged into his bank account per month which, depending on the catch, was significantly less than crew members from the EU. He also said he was physically abused by a skipper, being punched “randomly in the stomach”.Human trafficking for labour exploitation can involve a number of dimensions which can be assessed using a set of methodologies.
Between 2016 and 2020, just one person was not admitted to the NRM, out of 25 allegations relating to the fishing industry. Because of this, it has “become ever more difficult” for the ITF to get fishers admitted to the National Referral Mechanism, he said. In relation to the PSNI, Chief Inspector Julie Mullan said that they “have a dedicated Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking team that investigate all allegations” in Northern Ireland. She continued:
A Department of Justice spokesperson told the investigative team that once this Bill is enacted, the revised National Referral Mechanism “should make it easier for victims to come forward to seek protection and to access all of the support and resources that are available to them”. An expert who has represented fishers in court cases told the investigative team that this work permission made it “legal to exploit” migrant fishers, with few “real consequences”.
Due to a lack of trafficking convictions as well as “chronic deficiencies in victim identification and referral”, Ireland no longer meets the US law’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. This resulted in Ireland being downgraded from a ‘Tier 1’ country to ‘Tier 2’ in 2018.