Fishermen rescued from TN Trawlers boat bring Human Rights Act claim against Home Office
Leigh Day Manchester-based partner Stephanie Hill represents a small group of Ghanaian fishermen in legal proceedings. The claimants argue that the UK Government breached their human rights not to be held in slavery or servitude and not to perform forced or compulsory labour.
The rights are laid down in Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights and contained in UK law in the Human Rights Act 1998.
The claimants were rescued from abject conditions on the UK-based scallop trawler, the Olivia Jean, by charity Stella Maris in 2020.
The trawler is part of a fleet called TN Trawlers, a company owned by Thomas Iain Nicholson or by TN Enterprises Ltd, which is in turn owned by Thomas Iain Nicholson and his sons. The company is named in a recent BBC expose of trafficking and modern slavery “Workers ‘treated like slaves’ on Scottish fishing boats”.