Disclosure: Slavery at Sea and File on 4: Invisible Souls have investigated allegations that TN Trawlers in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, trafficked and mistreated workers from overseas.

The programmes reveal that men from the Philippines, Ghana, India and Sri Lanka were recognised as victims of modern slavery by the Home Office after they were referred to it between 2012 and 2020.

In 2012, police in Dumfries and Galloway launched Operation Alto, an investigation into human trafficking and labour abuse at TN Trawlers which was owned by the Nicholson family.

Eighteen former TN Trawlers employees passed into the Home Office’s National Referral Mechanism, a system which identifies and supports victims of human trafficking. Modern slavery is a term that can include human trafficking and slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour.

The Home Office defines human trafficking as a situation where a person is “coerced or deceived into a situation where they are exploited”. Under this guidance, the men were all given recognition by the Home Office that they had been trafficked.

Joel Quince from the Philippines is among several former TN workers who were interviewed by Disclosure. He was one of about 30 seafarers who arrived in the UK to join the Annan firm between 2011 and 2013, mostly from the Philippines. All the men the BBC spoke to described shortages of proper clothing, food and water.

On 22 August 2012, Mr Quince was aboard one of TN’s trawlers, the Philomena, off the coast of Northern Ireland during rough weather. He was fixing a broken link in the metal nets when the towing bar swung up. He leapt out of the way – but fell and hit his head on the deck.

His crew mates estimated he was unconscious for up to 15 minutes. When he woke up with a bandage on his head, he asked his skipper, Tom Nicholson Jr, if they were going to hospital.

“He said: ‘No, we’re not going to the hospital. We continue fishing’,” said Mr Quince.

He was given paracetamol by the skipper and his head was bandaged. The Philomena did not turn around and head for the port of Troon in Ayrshire until 11 hours after the accident.

Ten years later, in October 2022, at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Thomas Nicholson Snr and TN Trawlers pleaded guilty to failing to get adequate care for Joel Quince. The Crown accepted his ‘not guilty’ plea to withholding some of the Filipino crewmen’s passports without reasonable excuse.

Despite the Home Office’s conclusion that the men were trafficking victims, the case did not involve charges of trafficking or modern slavery. Thomas Nicholson Snr was fined £13,500 and ordered to pay Mr Quince £3,000 in compensation.

Thomas Nicholson Snr was the director of TN Trawlers, TN Enterprises, Sea Lady Trawlers, and Olivia Jean. The companies owned at least six scallop dredgers.

A spokesman for TN Group said it disputed suggestions that workers were mistreated.

The company said it always provided food and accommodation to workers and they were “always free to come and go when ashore”.

He said: “The overwhelming experience of our workers was that they were well treated and well remunerated. We dispute many of the accounts put to us, in some cases over a decade on. We absolutely refute any allegation of modern slavery or human trafficking.”

He said the company regretted the delay in bringing Mr Quince ashore for medical treatment.

“We fell short on that occasion. We have accepted responsibility, compensated and we apologise to that individual,” said the spokesman.

“Working conditions on the high seas, sometimes in dangerous waters and in a confined environment, are extremely difficult.”