Some 25 Filipino fishermen in Portavogie Harbor, Northern Ireland, have been working with low salary and bad working condition. But that does not bother them. What concerns them is their status as transit visa holder. They carry seaman's book, although they are not seamen but fishermen. Most of them are from the most impoverished provinces in the Visayas. Their contract is that of a seamen's but they work as fishermen aboard UK fishing vessels. “We always have trouble when customs and immigration men take a look at our visa. They ask us, ‘why are you still in UK?',” said 35-year-old Paris Montano. “With a transit visa, you may enter here and your next port of entry is either France or Norway.” Montano is worried that when the next round of customs checks happens, they will be questioned and will not be able to present the proper documents and permit to remain. A transit-visa holder, he says, has the right to remain in UK no longer than 48 hours. For someone to stay more than 48 hours, he needs to get at least a visit visa, he added. In the case of the 25 Filipino fishermen, they should have been given working visas. The Filipino fishermen have never left UK. Although they fish in other European seas, everyday they return to the harbor after fishing, unlike seamen who stay in the seas for months. “I talked to them (authorities) when they came to check. They were asking for our contract and looked at our visa. When they found out that we have transit visas, they asked, ‘what is your route.'?” “I told them, we travel from Ireland to Scotland and vice versa. They told us, ‘it's still UK so you should change your visa to working visa,” said Montano. When he could not answer the probing of customs officials, he passed them to the vessel owner, who had given them instruction to refer anyone asking about their status to their skipper or boat owner. While Montano and Russel Galido granted an interview with ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau, the others refused to say anything and wont' give even their names for fear of losing their jobs. Many of them say that they are happy with their employer, despite long working hours and very low pay. They said they were treated well by their skipper and were not concerned about not having the proper work permit. Filipinos in Belfast fondly call the fishermen “Portavogie boys.” Portavogie is a fishing port in County Down, Northern Ireland, which boasts of a modern harbor, big fishing fleets to catch mainly prawns, crabs and herring. The town is known for its fishing industry where fish auctions on the quays are popular. Montano's fishing fleet is into prawn fishing. When trawling for prawns, they accidentally catch fish and other seafood which they do not sell. When the Pinoy fishermen met Filipinos living in the area, they decided to give them the fish which they said, they just throw away anyway. “We kept them for the Filipino who also like to eat fish. We don't expect anything in return. We get lonely and we like their company,” Montano said. “The Filipinos (in Ireland) have a Christian community, we join them on Saturdays and Sunday. Although they don't ask for anything for the fish they give, many Filipinos there give them canned goods and meat in return, he said. Filipinos in Belfast who know the fishermen's condition feel sympathy for them and offer support. “We give them jacket, clothes, canned foods and bread. Sometimes rice,” said Benjie Quilario, leader of a Christian fellowship in Belfast. “When the fishermen have problems, we try to help them.,” said Charie Taggart, a Filipino in Northern Ireland. Many a time, she also acts as interpreter for the Visayan fishermen who had difficulty understanding the Irish accent. Thirty-three-year-old fisherman Russel Galido said he longs for a hot bath and heating system in the vessel. “We have no CR, no bathroom,” he said. “Only fresh water, no heater. You have to heat water if you want to take a bath,” batted in Montano. The fishermen want to have a recreation area at the harbor where they can relax and mingle with other fishermen there. They are grateful to some Filipinos in Northern Ireland for given them a washing machine and a karaoke player to help them cope with boredom. Galido and Montano are generally happy with whatever little effort their skipper extends to meet their needs. Montano said some fishermen were unfortunate to have abusive employers, but usually they get help when the abuses are known. A report by the television station BBC last year exposed the racial and physical abuse of Filipino fishermen in the hands of an employer. The report, Montano said, has alerted other employers which led to improvement in their working and living conditions. The fishermen said Filipinos are preferred by most skippers in the UK than the other nationalities because many of them can speak English, hardworking and can learn fast. “We can easily communicate unlike the Polish and the Russian who can't speak English. We also could not be understood by some employers, so I told them (his companions) to speak slowly,” said Montano. The Filipinos are also favored over the Eastern European because Filipinos get only four and a half less than they should get. “There are disadvantages as the whites are paid much higher. Their one-week pay is already our month's salary. And then they also want us to stay aboard the boat to clean, to maintain the vessel,” he said. “We stay even in storm. We also keep the engine running every morning.” Montano used to work as a traffic enforcer in Taguig for P8,000 a month. With a salary of $320 or P21,000, the minimum pay for entry-level seamen, he is quite happy. Galido showed ABS-CBN's Europe News Bureau his sleeping quarter which he described as his ‘kabaong' or coffin because it's just enough to accommodate him lying down. He also receives $320 a month and is likewise happy with it. “It's better than nothing,” he said. The minimum wage in UK is £5.73 per hour for workers aged 22 and older. Some Filipinos in Belfast who sympathize with the fishermen but who also did n ot want to be identified, said they have made some research and found out that the Filipino fishermen could not demand a minimum wage because they are not holding work permits. They said some UK employers are circumventing the law, giving Filipino fishermen a seaman's contract, with a minimum seaman's salary and not as fishermen. ABS-CBN's Europe News Bureau has found that it is more costly for the UK employers to secure the Filipino fishermen work permits and they do not want to do it because it would mean higher salaries for the fishermen. “That's our dream - to get a work visa as fishermen because we do not go out of UK,” said Montano. According to the Labor office at the Philippine Embassy in London, it is the employer's responsibility to apply for work permit for the fishermen. Labor Attaché Jainal Rasul, Jr., a lawyers, said the labor office has already met with the federation of UK fishermen and vessel owners to discuss the condition of Filipino fishermen and prodded them to secure work permits for the fishermen. But, he said. despite their low wages and poor living condition, only five percent of the Filipino fishermen in the UK are unhappy. - ABS
