Ireland’s fishing industry is facing sanctions by U.S. authorities after a U.S.-based human rights campaign group filed a report with American authorities alleging exploitation of migrant workers aboard Irish fishing vessels.
In a petition to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Washington D.C.-headquartered legal advocacy group Liberty Shared asked the CBP to exclude seafood “caught and or produced wholly or in part using forced labor by participants in the fishing industry in the Republic of Ireland.” The petition named four Irish fishing companies it said merit scrutiny from the CBP.
The CBP has the power to place withhold-release orders (WROs) on companies and fishing vessels, preventing their products from entering the US. The CBP has issued WROs against five Taiwanese-owned fishing vessels and state-owned Chinese fishing firm Dalian Ocean Fishing Company. While Irish seafood exports to the U.S. are minimal, the American seafood market is the world’s largest…