The legal plight of four Ghanaian fishermen, stranded in Galway following the capsizing of their vessel in March, looks to have set legal precedent late last month as the Department of Justice granted their application for work visas.
Recruited by a UK firm on a monthly salary of £1,300 to man the fishing vessel Ambitious out of the port Kilkeel, Co. Down, the saga occurred after the seamen found themselves marooned after the boat ran aground on Inis Mór.
Rescued by the RNLI and other agencies, the fishermen initially found accommodation at Salthill Garda Station before couchsurfing among Galway’s small Ghanese African community while being financially supported by various mariner charities.
Despite attempts by their employer Captain Tommy Conneely to pay for their return to Belfast and flights home to Ghana the four preferred to remain in Galway as they handed in their passports per the request of the state while their status was being evaluated.
Courtesy of ambiguity around the legal status of non-EEA fishermen as well as the fact the men were technically registered to work solely in the UK rather than in Irish waters, the Ghanese fishermen were left in legal limbo for six months as undocumented workers.
Their cause was taken up by Cork-based socialist TD Mick Barry as well as the British trade union UNITE who used the four as a wedge issue to attain clarification on the working status of non-EEA fishermen.
A victim of government neglect and overfishing, the domestic fishing industry has been increasingly reliant on non-Irish and non-European labour with the Department of Employment establishing the Atypical Working Scheme (AWS) in 2016 to cater to migrant labourers fast replacing existing workers.
The case of the Ghanese four highlights the toxic combination of worker precarity, migrant labour and post-Brexit legal ambiguity that could very well add fuel to the fire onto the Republic’s asylum woes.
Ignoring the potential wage compression and undercutting in already moribund native fishermen the Department’s judgement bodes badly for future exploitation within the industry as well as potential even worsening asylum numbers considering the opportunity now available for entrepreneurial people smugglers.
Long pinpointed as a conduit for illegal migration as well as worker exploitation in 2021 even the U.S’s State Department linked Ireland’s handling of visas for non-EEA migrants as a source of human trafficking.
Abuse within the fishing industry was cited in a 2021 Maynooth study to batter down Irish border control with calls by academics by regularising undocumented fishermen and allowing them access to welfare and support services.
As the last twenty-years of Irish asylum and migration history has shown, the open border responses by the state and NGO class only serve to cloak a wider agenda and merely accelerate the migration crisis through their charity.
Enabling a legal access route for precarious migrant fishermen to simply crashland off the Irish coast and eventually avail of Irish visas and potentially citizenship opens up a future migrant route off our Atlantic coast that can and will be exploited.
Imagine a scenario a decade hence where West African trawlers discover a side hustle dumping migrants off the Connacht coast for a hefty fee following the precedent established in last month’s Department ruling.
Driven in part by poor labour conditions a stream of migrants will tap out of employment on the high seas and into the arms of a waiting albeit chaotic asylum system following July’s visa decision leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab on often unscrupulous employers once their labour is used.
What could happen off our coasts in a decade is comparable to the fast emerging crisis in Rosslare Harbour, found to be a weak point for illegal migrants to enter the Common Travel Area as attested by the uncovery of a dozen Vietnamese and Kurdish migrants earlier this year.
Whereas in decade’s gone by fishing provided localised jobs to supplement many towns outside of tourism season it is now subject to a race to the bottom, facilitated by Department bureaucrats and benefiting neither worker, migrant or community at large.
Often under the guise of workers’ rights Ireland’s NGO establishment chips away at the nation’s border security and lets the rest of society clean up the mess. In a convoluted world of migration management the little decisions often matter a lot with the ordeal of four Ghanese fishermen opening up an unwanted conduit into an already besieged country.
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There is a Major Hint of Self Destruction at play here when we consider all the players involved and the outcome involving law and courts.
Don’t mention Irish Fishermen or borders because not an ounce of thought or consideration was engaged, to the impacts this fucking retarded judgement was handed down.
These same fuckwits in government and courts will be BEGGING FOR
IRISH ASSISTANCE….when the impact of what they’re doing affects them personally and families…and we’d be entitled to ignore them cretin