Parliamentary Event Highlights Risks Facing Migrant Fishing Workers
Labour and migration experts have warned that the UK’s continued reliance on a transit visa loophole is exposing migrant fishermen to heightened risks of labour exploitation.
Speaking at a Parliamentary event hosted by Focus on Labour Exploitation, legal specialists, regulators and anti-slavery authorities argued that existing visa routes fail to recognise migrant fishermen as workers, leaving them with limited rights, weak protections and few practical routes to challenge abuse while operating on UK fishing vessels.
The warning followed a parliamentary event hosted on 20 January by Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), attended by MPs, peers, regulators, retailers, academics, NGOs and representatives from across the food and fishing sectors. The discussion coincided with the launch of FLEX’s new report, Unravelling The Nets, which examines how current seafarer visa policies affect migrant fishermen working on UK vessels.
Speakers at the event included Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Alistair Carmichael MP, chair of the EFRA Committee and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fishing, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleonor Lyons, GLAA chief executive Elysia MacCaffery, barrister Shu Shin Luh of Doughty Street Chambers, Baroness Frances O’Grady, and FLEX representatives Lucila Granada and Kate Roberts.
Transit Route Creates Legal Grey Area
The report focuses on the widespread use of the Code 7 Transit Stamp, which allows foreign crew to enter the UK to join a vessel that is expected to leave UK waters. The stamp does not grant permission to work or reside in the UK, creating what FLEX describes as a legal grey area with limited protection for workers and few realistic routes to raise concerns about mistreatment.
The alternative, the Skilled Worker visa, is currently the only route that allows migrant fishermen to work legally within UK territorial waters. However, eligibility thresholds were raised in July 2025, including a salary requirement above £40,000 and higher English language standards. Further changes due in December 2026 are expected to remove fishing roles from eligibility altogether.
FLEX warns this will leave both workers and vessel operators increasingly dependent on the transit route, despite its lack of safeguards.
Consensus On Need For Fishing Visa
According to participants, there was broad agreement that the UK must avoid repeating mistakes seen in other sectors reliant on migrant labour. Speakers argued for the introduction of a dedicated fishing visa that formally recognises fishermen as workers, allows them to change employers, renew permission to work, and access employment rights in practice.
Alistair Carmichael MP said: “Across the board, the food industry is crying out for labour that it is simply unable to get domestically. There’s been a long, slow burn of these industries being neglected and undermined. This will take a generation to turn around and until then migrant workers will remain a fact of fishing. But highly skilled migrant fishers doing dangerous work deserve a better deal, where their rights, dignity and safety are guaranteed by a better visa system.”
Eleonor Lyons, Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, said the current system leaves exploited workers with few options. “Sadly, for workers being exploited the visa system is poorly designed and it is unclear where fishers can go for help if they need it,” she said, adding that similar risks exist in social care, agriculture and domestic work.
Enforcement And Policy Pressure
Kate Roberts, Head of Policy at FLEX, said upcoming rule changes would push migrant fishermen into illegality if they continued working in UK waters. “Workers will be driven onto the transit route, criminalising them if they fish inside UK waters and removing practical options to challenge labour exploitation,” she said.
FLEX is also calling for the new Fair Work Agency to prioritise fishing within labour market enforcement, warning that without structural reform, risks to workers are set to increase rather than diminish.
