When Vishal Sharma, an experienced merchant seaman, arrived in London from India in November 2017, he was looking forward to a good job on a Belgian tanker, the MT Waasmunster, assisting engineers. He had a 15-month contract and a transit visa, enabling him to travel to Milford Haven in Wales, where the 174-metre vessel was anchored.

But in a last-minute change of plan, his Mumbai agent told him to head to Southwick in West Sussex, England, to board a scallop trawler, the Noordzee.

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At sea, there was no easy way out. He was threatened with deportation if he did not work, he says.

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For the next three weeks, he worked 18 to 20 hours a day, without safety equipment or proper meals, he claims. He had little access to the bathroom and developed urinary problems, he says.

His ordeal ended after he was transferred on to another boat, where other migrant fishers had reported being exploited and mistreated to police.

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Sharma appeared on a BBC documentary, Disclosure: Slavery at Sea, which broadcast in 2024. The BBC, which also ran a radio documentary on the issue, revealed he was one of 35 men who worked on vessels owned by TN Trawlers and its sister companies, owned by the Nicholson family, and were recognised as victims of modern slavery between 2012 and 2020.

But justice has been elusive. TN Trawlers and its associated companies were the subject of two lengthy criminal investigations, but no cases of human trafficking or modern slavery have come to trial, although some of the men waited years to give evidence.

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The Guardian was told that TN Trawlers no longer exists. A legal representative of the TN group said they did not wish to comment on this article.

Last year, a spokesperson for TN Group told the BBC it disputed suggestions that workers were mistreated or were victims of modern slavery.

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