Since July last year Irish fishing vessel owners have had a means to legally recruit non-EEA fishers under the work permit system. A cap of 150 permits was agreed with fishing industry representatives. To date only 6 non-EEA fishers have been recruited by legal means. 5/

The two who were admitted to the human trafficking referral mechanism likewise paid exorbitant recruitment fees and were told that they would be working on a foreign flagged vessel docked in Ireland only to be told on arrival that they were instead working on an Irish vessel in Dunmore East. 4/

They each had some €7,000 extracted from them by an Indonesian crewing agent before being sent here. They arrived in Dublin Airport with a letter from this crewing agent and an Irish crewing agent based in Donegal claiming that they were due to board a UK flagged vessel in Dingle. 3/

coming days. Indonesian fishers working legally in Ireland estimate some 40 of their compatriots in total have been trafficked. I’m informed that six who only arrived two days ago were taken into Garda custody in Cork within 24 hours of their arrival and are due to return tomorrow. 2/