Experts working among migrant workers fear repercussions for migrant workers engaged in fishing vessels in the State in the wake of the illegal emigration of a group of suspected Tamil migrants to Australia aboard a boat from Malyankara on Saturday. A study on marine fishing relating to labour migration to Kerala conducted by the Kochi-based Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) in association with the Thummarukudy Foundation in 2017 found the Kerala coast home to traditional fishers from five Indian States West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Almost all harbours in the State except Vizhinjam are dominated by migrant traditional fishing workers who were forced out of their States owing to various forms of exploitation and absence of fish landing centres. They are the mainstay of our fishing industry since even the descendants of Malayali fishing workers are no longer entering the industry as they find other jobs thanks to better education.Heightened surveillance and screening may put their jobs in jeopardy, said Benoy Peter, executive director, CMID. Fishers from Colachel Munambam harbour dominated by traditional fishers from the coastal town of Colachel in Tamil Nadu also employs migrants from Murshidabad in Uttar Pradesh for menial jobs. With the acute shortage of fishermen, even migrants from States with no traditional fishing background such as Assam are employed on fishing vessels. Charles George, president of the Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi, however, ruled out such repercussions against migrant fishing workers in the wake of illegal emigration since the Colachel fishermen engaged in trawl boats from Munambam and those from Thoothoor fishing hamlet who dominate distance water fishing boats from Thoppumpady harbour are pretty much non-replaceable by Malayalis.