Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture and the Marine, Simon Coveney, has said that a package of measure to deal with undocumented non EU fishermen will be announced next Thursday.
Speaking after a three-hour meeting of the task force set up to tackle allegations that non EU fishermen were being exploited Simon Coveney said there are complex issues to constructing a permit system to allow people already in the industry to stay and to make sure those that come in the future can come and work without being exploited.
He said there is still work to do on the details of the measures that will be published after next Thursday’s task force meeting.
He said he hopes those measures will be put in place within a few weeks.
Meanwhile, gardaí have raided a number of premises and the naval service has arrested a fishing boat in the Irish sea as part of the response to allegations of abuse of migrant workers in the fishing industry.
Speaking ahead of today’s meeting Minister Coveney said he does not want a “witch hunt” of people who may be in Ireland illegally and may be vulnerable.
He said they want to regularise the position of people in the fishing industry and put in place a system for the future so we know who they are, where they come from and most importantly they are not exploited.
Mr Coveney said they must work out whether they need permits, licences or visas but added it may be a complicated matter because many who work in the industry are not employees but work for a share of the catch meaning they are in effect sole traders.
Therefore the existing work permit system cannot be applied in the normal way and a new solution is needed he said.
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