A meeting held to improve the social and labour rights of all fishing vessel’s crews in all countries has resulted in a new resolution.
The resolution text adopted stresses the need to increase the number of countries adhering to ILO ‘Work in Fishing’ Convention C1881 and to harmonise fisheries policies with international standards on safety at sea.
“Nowadays, we have enough international legal instruments to properly regulate the safety, working and living conditions of our crews, but much remains to be done,” said Javier Garat, president of Europêche.
“We must improve their effective implementation worldwide and increase the number of ratifications, particularly concerning the ILO C188.”
The resolution was drawn up and adopted at the Tripartite Meeting on Issues Relating to Migrant Fishers organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.
It requests governments to facilitate the recruitment of foreign fishers and simplify procedures for granting work and residence permits in countries where there are not sufficient local fishers to meet ship-owners’ needs.
The overall goal is to have migrant fishers in a completely legal situation and with adequate working conditions.
In addition, the resolution calls for greater coordination between the various ministerial departments to better carry out inspections on board fishing vessels, combining them and preventing these checks from being repeated unnecessarily, thus reducing precious time for fishing operations.
The ILO C188 will enter into force on 16 November 2017.
