The fishermen forced to risk death in 30ft seas their boats were never designed for
AS the 30ft wave crashed against the side of the boat, tipping the vessel almost onto her side, Alasdair Montgomery knew this might be the day that he and his five crew members lost their lives at sea.
Only months earlier, the 62year-old skipper and his son, Andrew, had spent £2million on the brand new, 16-metre trawler – the first prawn boat to be built in a decade on the West Coast of Scotland.
But, instead of being within 12 miles of the UK coastline where it was designed to sail, the Asteria was operating deep in the Atlantic, 100 miles from land.
Despite the atrocious conditions, the crew and the vessel survived to fish another day, but at the heart of their near tragedy is a bureaucratic nightmare. It involves draconian immigration laws and political to-ing and frotional
‘Every time my son is out there I am worried’
ing which sees any trawler manned by fishermen from outwith the European Economic Area (EEA) effectively banned from fishing in Scottish waters.
Frustrated skippers say they cannot get locals and European fishermen to go to sea, and that Scotland’s fishing industry will collapse without the help of the highly skilled Filipino, Ghanaian and Sri Lankan crews still keen to follow a proud tradition.
But persistent appeals and lobbying by fishermen to the UK Government and Holyrood for the rules to be relaxed to allow concessionary visas to be granted for foreign crews – before Brexit – have fallen on deaf ears.
Now time is running out for the Montgomerys and unless things change soon they will join the many Scottish fishermen who have had to abandon their tradi- trade and sell up for good. Mr Montgomery Snr, a fisherman for 45 years, said: ‘We invested everything in this boat, and the idea that we might have to sell it is very sad. But we are being forced into seas our boat can’t cope with. Every time my son is out there, I am worried,’
Recalling how close they came to disaster in March this year, he said: ‘We found ourselves one Saturday night fishing out in the Atlantic, 150 miles south of Ireland, and 100 miles west of Land’s End, in hurricane-force winds and 30ft seas. At one point, we thought we had lost the boat, and our lives, as she keeled right over on her side. A 16.5m boat should not be out there.’
Last week, this paper highlighted how, partly because of the same regulations, there is no longer a single Scottish-registered trawler landing fish at Lochinver harbour.
Last night, Mr Montgomery Jnr called on the UK Government to change the law, which has been in place since 1971.
Speaking to The Scottish Mail on Sunday, the 30-year-old said: ‘It’s EU rules that are stopping us from working in Scottish waters, so we all hope they will be lifted after Brexit. But we need the UK Government to either change the law entirely or grant us all concessionary visas as soon as possible, and halt the rapid decline of the fishing industry now occurring, before it is too late.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We are committed to delivering an immigration system which works in the best interests of the country. It is right that employers look first to the resident workforce before recruiting from overseas.
‘Between 2010 and 2012, we operated a visa scheme which granted temporary work visas to non-EEA nationals working on fishing vessels, which has now closed.’