Tag Archives: Filipino fishermen
UK government faces legal challenge over visa system for migrant fishers
Human rights lawyers have begun the process of bringing a judicial review against the Home Office, arguing that visa arrangements used to employ overseas crew are in breach of European human rights law. The so-called “transit visa” scheme was the subject of an FT investigation published on Thursday, which detailed the mistreatment of four Filipino fishermen who worked on British boats over the course of a year. Lawyers at law firm Leigh Day told the FT they had taken the first step 
towards legal action against the government, outlining their arguments in a letter to home secretary Suella Braverman. The government has two weeks to respond — although it can ask for an extension — after which Leigh Day will decide whether to issue proceedings in court. >click to read< 11:50
The fishermen
Jose Quezon’s hands moved like the parts of a well-oiled machine. It was April 1 2021, and the Northern Osprey, a 20m fishing trawler that sails out of Kilkeel, Northern Ireland, was in UK waters near the Isle of Man. The boat and its crew, four Filipinos and one British captain, had been at sea since dawn two days before. But Quezon had been at sea for the majority of his adult life. He had worked as a deckhand in the Philippines for 14 years and, since 2009, on British-flagged boats fishing out of UK ports. Technically, Quezon lived in the Philippines. But each year, he boarded a plane in Manila and flew to Belfast in Northern Ireland or Aberdeen in Scotland. When he arrived, his visa gave him 48 hours to transit through the UK to join a ship, which he’d live on for the next eight to 12 months. >click to read< 20:56
China ship blasts Pinoy fishermen with water cannon – The makings of a Trade War with China.
MANILA, Philippines – A Chinese coast guard ship used a water cannon last month to drive Filipino fishermen out of Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, showing aggressive enforcement of new Chinese fisheries rules, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said yesterday. Read more here 14:33
