Fishermen’s safety must be our priority

THERE will be considerable attention paid to the Scottish fishing industry as boat owners demand a return of exclusive Brexit fishing rights to UK waters.

But what about the rights of the crews that take these boats to sea?

Trawler fishing is the most dangerous civilian job in Britain, bar none, and a large part of it these days is undertaken by foreign crews.

One of these men, Aurelian Dinu from Romania, has been left completely dependent on care after suffering horrendous head injuries during an accident in the Firth of Clyde last August.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch report, just released, shows Dinu was one of three deckhands aboard the Sea Harvester who had not completed a mandatory training course.

There were also difficulties with language and the crew did not wear life jackets or helmets. Dinu lived on the boat in Ardglass harbour, on the east coast of County Down in Northern Ireland, as many foreign nationals working on fishing boats all around the British coast do.

The Scottish fleet is kept at sea by foreign crews but the end of a scheme allowing non-EU migrants to work on boats has put a squeeze on the industry and its reliance on Filipino fishermen.

That is probably just as well as a similar work permit system operating in the Republic of Ireland has just been compared to issuing dog licences to boat owners.

Trade union campaigner Ken Fleming said he has seen dogs treated better than the Asian and African fishermen exploited in the fishing industry. It made him ashamed to be Irish.

When we start laying the rules for post-Brexit work permits let’s make sure industrial fishing practices do not make us ashamed to be Scottish.