UK government faces legal challenge over visa system for migrant fishers

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The UK government faces a legal challenge over a visa system highlighted by a Financial Times investigation that leaves migrant crew on British fishing boats vulnerable to trafficking and modern slavery.

Human rights lawyers have begun the process of bringing a judicial review against the Home Office, arguing that visa arrangements used to employ overseas crew are in breach of European human rights law.

The so-called “transit visa” scheme was the subject of an FT investigation published on Thursday, which detailed the mistreatment of four Filipino fishermen who worked on British boats over the course of a year.

Lawyers at law firm Leigh Day told the FT they had taken the first step towards legal action against the government, outlining their arguments in a letter to home secretary Suella Braverman. The government has two weeks to respond — although it can ask for an extension — after which Leigh Day will decide whether to issue proceedings in court.

“The transit visa scheme appears to be unlawful as it facilitates the exploitation and forced labour of migrant fishers and doesn’t allow the state to meet its obligations to prevent trafficking and forced labour,” said Carolin Ott, solicitor at Leigh Day who is challenging the government on behalf of several exploited migrant fishers.

Transit visas give an individual a fixed period of time to enter and pass through the UK to a place outside the country. They are intended for use by merchant seafarers — such as those boarding a cargo ship bound for another country — but in recent decades have been adopted by the UK fishing industry as boat owners struggle to attract crew. Holders of transit visas are not subject to normal immigration controls or entitled to the protections of UK employment law.

While boats operating in UK waters must have skilled worker visas for migrant crew, vessels that catch fish in international waters are legally entitled to use the transit visa scheme — widely viewed as an immigration “loophole” — to employ migrant workers.

The crew, who do not have permission to work in the UK, live onboard all year round to avoid violating the law when their boats return to port.

Experts estimate overseas crew account for more than half of all deckhands in the UK fishing industry. Many are paid about £1,000 per month. Some of those who spoke to the FT for its investigation described various forms of mistreatment, including forced labour and restricted access to medical treatment.

Rothna Begum, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the scheme may be unlawful. “The UK’s transit visas allow British companies a loophole to evade legal responsibilities to respect migrant workers’ labour rights,” she said. “This is in breach of the UK’s international human rights and labour rights obligations.”

“By tying fishers’ visas to one particular vessel it allows employers to have huge control over workers that they can abuse and exploit. This . . . is similar to other tied-visa systems such as the abusive kafala (sponsorship) system in the Middle East, which enables forced labour and other systemic abuses against migrant workers,” she added.

If the transit visa scheme is found to be unlawful, Braverman would have to decide how to amend or abandon the scheme to ensure she is acting lawfully.

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland in Scotland, welcomed the steps towards a judicial review.

“It’s a fairly expensive and convoluted route, but in the face of political intransigence and ignorance, then that may be the only way around this,” he said.

“We need to have a proper visa system that allows the fishing industry to get the access to the labour that they need and which allows people working in fishing boats to be given the same protections of employment law and health and safety legislation as everybody else.”

A government spokesperson said that “it would be inappropriate to comment on legal action while it is ongoing and we do not routinely comment on individual cases”.

They added: “We are supporting the seafood industry through our existing visa routes to recruit from overseas. We will continue to work with the sector to urgently tackle any instances of abuse being discovered at sea.”

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