A fishing boat named Princess Malak left Lake Manzala, near the northern Egyptian coast this past April with 37 fishermen on board. The boat was heading to Eritrea to fish in its territorial waters, but a week after the start of the journey, it accidently trespassed in Sudanese territorial waters. By the 49^th nautical mile, Sudanese forces overtook the boat and arrested the fishermen on board.

A fishing boat named Princess Malak left Lake Manzala, near the northern Egyptian coast this past April with 37 fishermen on board. The boat was heading to Eritrea to fish in its territorial waters, but a week after the start of the journey, it accidently trespassed in Sudanese territorial waters. By the 49^th nautical mile, Sudanese forces overtook the boat and arrested the fishermen on board.

“The detention of Princess Malak’s crew is not the first of its kind and it will not be the last,” said a spokesperson for Egyptian fisherman Hasan Shawa. “Risks suffered by Lake Manzala’s fishermen have become a repeated phenomenon since seven fishing boats were detained in 2014 in Saudi Arabia and Israel for fishing in their territorial waters. Still, the fishing boats go back.”

Eritrean permits

Egyptian fishermen usually conduct these fishing journeys illegally without obtaining any permits, which increases the risks to which they are exposed. Nevertheless, Mohamed Rashad, owner of Princess Malak, which is still detained in Sudan, found another way.

“We don’t deal with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, but I pay for a permit for entering Eritrean waters to fish, by going through an agent for one of the Eritrean companies,” he explained. “We have an agreement with a navigation and fishing company in Eritrea to work for them in their own territorial waters due to the abundance of fish there,” Rashad said.

Over 20 other boat owners, mostly from Suez and the Red Sea, fish using the same scheme, according to Rashad, adding that boat captains bring workers and fishermen from Al-Matariyyah district in Dakahlia and Lake Manzala with an average load of 35 to 40 people on fishing journeys in the Red Sea, as well as the territorial waters of Eritrea and other countries.

Lake unfit for fishing

The reasons why the fishermen go on such journeys vary — the most important being the difficulty of fishing in Egypt’s Lake Manzala.

The lake, which used to expand over an area of 750,000 acres, has shrunken down to 100,000 acres, as it has been divided into state-licensed private enclosures and fish farms.

Hasan Shawa said 70,000 fishermen used to work in Lake Manzala, but 35,000 of them left to work in the Red Sea, in addition to moving their place of residence to Suez, Port Said and Damietta since the lake no longer provides any source of livelihood, due to being dominated by thugs and influential people who divided the lake into enclosures and fish farms of their own. They even prevent fishermen from fishing in the lake, he added.

Shawa also said there are nearly 10,000 fishermen who still fish in the lake in Um Khalf in the vicinity of Port Said, and they face various risks since the area is allocated for the benefit of a private association and it encompasses thugs and influential people. Fifteen thousand fishermen, on the other hand, left the craft and worked at investment plants in Port Said Governorate due to the increased rate of unemployment and the absence of livelihood sources.

The last journey

Ramadan Swairki, one of Princess Malak’s fishermen, narrated the details of the journey and how they were detained. “I am 17 years old and I have been fishing in territorial waters for nearly five years. Most journeys were conducted illegally in the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. We used to sneak into these areas to fish and go back without being caught. The journey lasted 20 days, eight of which are allocated for the trip. Each fishermen gets a share of 2,000 Egyptian Pounds,” he said.

 “This year and for the first time, we got official permits to work in the territorial waters in Eritrea. Our last journey was the fourth one conducted this year and we fished in Eritrea twice without being harassed, as the boat owner obtained a permit to work for an Eritrean navigation and fishing company. Initially, we fished for the benefit of this company and delivered 3,000 containers, each of which contained 20 kilos of fish. After delivering the agreed upon amount of fish, we rested for two days and resumed our work to fish another 3,000 containers for the benefit of the boat owner to be sold in Egypt.”

Swairki said the Sudanese authorities confirmed initially that their arrest was merely a routine procedure to verify their documents. However, they were detained later in a Sudanese jail on charges of trespassing territorial waters.

“We were mistreated for three days as food was not available in prison unless we paid for it. They refused to give us the clothes we had on the boat despite the cold weather. Afterwards, the Eritrean authorities decided to release six minors including me in addition to a 78-year-old man. We went back to Cairo through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry while the other fishermen remained in detention,” he said.

“Great source of livelihood despite the risk”

Along with Princess Malak, two other Egyptian boats, Huda al-Rahman and Princess Mariam are being detained in Sudan. Ahmad Ali Khayat, father of one fishermen on board Princess Malak who is still being detained in Sudan said, “I was shocked that my son called to inform me that he was arrested by the Sudanese authorities and the line was cut.”

I pursued the case and learned that he was sentenced to three years in prison, but the sentence was later changed to one year imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Sudanese pounds, imposed on the owner of the boat. Sudan’s Justice Minister, afterwards, called off the case to be reopened in light of new submitted documents. He then promised us to refer the issue to President al-Bashir once he wins the presidency. However, nothing has happened so far,” he explained.

Wife of one fisherman, Hanan Husseini appealed to the Egyptian government to intervene for the release of her husband who is a fisherman of ‘Princess Mariam’ and also detained in Sudan. “My husband Mansour Ashmawy is being detained because he went out in search of a livelihood. He is the provider of our family. I appeal to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and President El-Sisi to consider the issue of the detained fishermen,” she said.

However, no official statements have yet been issued in regards to the detained fishermen. Husseini stressed that there is no official following up the issue, and she underlined that she is following up the developments of the case over the media and through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s statements which recently affirmed the release of ‘Huda al-Rahman’ boat as the Attorney General of Sudan issued the release order but everyone is still awaiting the return of the fishermen and the release of the other two boats.

Nevertheless, Swairki stressed that despite the risks he suffered, he will conduct other journeys because they promise better incomes than fishing in Egypt. A three-day journey in the territorial waters of the neighboring countries in the Red Sea produces five times as much as 20 straight days of fishing at home. “There is relief and a great source of livelihood in the foreign territorial waters despite the risk.”