African and Asian migrants working on Irish fishing trawlers are to be given new immigration rights to protect them from trafficking and modern slavery.

Non-EEA fishing workers will no longer be tied to employers and will be able to leave a boat to find other work without fear of deportation under a new immigration agreement between the Irish government and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)...

The deal, concluded to stave off litigation, comes after the ITF took the unprecedented step of taking the Irish government to the high court in Dublin for facilitating modern slavery with its permit scheme for fishing workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) last year...

The permit scheme in question was introduced in response to a Guardian investigation that uncovered persistent allegations of trafficking and severe exploitation of migrant workers in the Irish fleet in 2015... However, the scheme tied workers to individual employers, leaving many vulnerable to abusive conditions and in fear of deportation if they complained or wanted to leave...

The Garda National Immigration Bureau’s anti-trafficking unit has formally identified 26 men as suspected victims of modern slavery in the Irish fishing fleet in the last year...