UK authorities held up five Belgian fishing vessels and arrested their crews after they were fishing in the Bristol Channel. A Belgian official branded the treatment “disproportionate” after seamen claimed they were not allowed to go to the toilet alone after being arrested and treated “like criminals”.
On Tuesday and Friday last week, the vessels were stopped outside the 12-mile zone (the area from the UK coast subject to UK law) by British authorities. The boats were “suspected of incorrect logbook registration”, according to Leontien De Wulf, spokesperson for Flemish Minister for Sea Fisheries Hilde Crevits.
“The arrests were made without giving any reason,” De Wulf told The Brussels Times. “Only at the end, after the hard disk was confiscated, were they told that they were suspected of incorrect logbook registration, but without specification of voyage or period.”
Du Wulf added: “There are agreements among EU countries about where they can fish for certain types of fish, such as sole or megrims. These countries perform regular checks on each other to see if these agreements are respected.”
The checks are understood to usually take no more than an hour, with a technician coming aboard boats one at a time to check the its computer system.
According to The Brussels Times, the UK control service stopped five Belgian vessels at the same time. The boats’ holds were sealed, and the men onboard were placed under arrest. The outlet reports that they were forced to sail to a British port some 93 miles away, around 9 hours. When they arrived at the new port, it was reported that the vessels’ hard drives were confiscated.
According to one fisherman, the men were treated “like criminals”, while one of the skippers claimed the arrests caused economic losses of £34,000 because of fuel consumption and manpower costs.
“This control and the arrests left a big impression on boaters and fishermen. There is anxiety in the sector”, he said.
Since Brexit, the UK has allowed European fishermen to keep fishing in its waters. However, the Brexit deal foresees a 25% decline in European fishing rights in UK waters by 2026.
Blaming Brexit for the fiasco, De Wulf said that EU countries rarely find themselves in fishing disputes like the ones they find themselves in with the UK. “But since Brexit, the UK no longer belongs to those countries, and there is not really an agreed-upon procedure now. But even taking that into account, this was very far-reaching and disproportionate”, the spokesperson claimed.
A spokesperson for the UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO) told The Brussels Times that it led “a multi-agency operation” in the Celtic Sea on 8 April 2025 in response to intelligence relating to “potential breaches of UK fisheries regulations.”
“A number of vessels were detained [and brought] to port to enable evidence-gathering before being released,” the MMO said. “As this is a live investigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”