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Thousands could be left without protection from slavery and other human rights abuses as a result of a loophole in the government’s Employment Rights Bill.
Charities and campaign groups plan to write to the home secretary to warn that migrant fishermen are “facing breaches of their human rights not to be held in slavery or servitude and not to perform forced or compulsory labour” if the government doesn’t take action to amend the law.
Currently, the new protections afforded by the bill would not extend to migrant fishers on the Seafarer Transit Stamp, a type of visa offered to workers on UK fishing vessels that operate outside of UK territorial waters – just 12 nautical miles off the coast.
There is no UK labour protection for these workers, even if they are employed by British companies, working on a UK flagged vessel and selling into the UK supply chain, excluding them from even the most basic of employment law protections such as the national minimum wage.
In the letter to Yvette Cooper seen by The Independent, charities are demanding the government close this loophole to ensure all workers employed by UK-based firms are covered by new employment legislation.
While the government has committed to strengthening seafarers’ rights within the bill – toughening the laws around collective dismissal and cementing seafarer wage protections in UK law – ministers have been urged to go further.
Though no official statistics exist, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) estimates that there are around 2,000 migrant workers in the UK fleet who are recruited via the Seafarers Transit Stamp.
It comes after a group of migrant fishermen last month were paid £20,000 in compensation each by the Home Office after being recognised as victims of modern slavery in a claim brought in 2020.
The department was accused of breaching their rights protected by Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by failing to have in place systems to protect them from human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labour.
The claimants had been given leave to enter the UK as contract seamen on a British-owned vessel, where they were forced to work excessively long hours without time off, as well as being threatened, intimidated and verbally abused.
Now, the government has been told it has a “significant opportunity” to protect this group of workers as it develops its Employment Rights Bill, which ministers have said will deliver the “biggest upgrade to rights at work in a generation”.
The letter, signed by Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), ITF, Nautilus International, Stella Maris, The Seafarers’ Charity and the Ethical Trading Initiative, warns that the recent claim brought by migrant fishermen was “not a single outlier case but a systematic problem across the industry”.
The letter expresses concern over “the fact that fishers are facing breaches of their human right not to be held in slavery or servitude and not to perform forced or compulsory labour.
“The previous government’s failure to proactively ensure that the work migration routes that they have established do not facilitate or safeguard against slavery and forced labour has created a situation where we will continue to see systemic violations of fishing workers until robust action is taken,” they warn.
“By contrast, we welcome the priority given by government to improving employment rights, including the recent commitment to strengthening seafarers’ rights within the Employment Rights Bill as well as the establishment of a Fair Work Agency to improve labour market enforcement.”
The Employment Rights Bill, which had its second reading in the Commons last month, will extend the “employment protections given by the best British companies to millions more workers,” deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Modern slavery has devastating impacts and we are committed to tackling this heinous crime in all its forms.
“We are grateful for this letter and will consider the recommendations.”
