Sallouma Muhammad is a 60-year-old fisherman, born and raised in Gomrok, a poor neighbourhood in Alexandria governorate that has grown notorious for helping illegal migrants reach their intended destinations for more than fifty years.

Most inhabitants of the Gomrok area are fishermen – veteran and professional fishermen work in the people smuggling trade since they know sea routes and have boats big enough to transport illegal migrants.

Sallouma Muhammad is a 60-year-old fisherman, born and raised in Gomrok, a poor neighbourhood in Alexandria governorate that has grown notorious for helping illegal migrants reach their intended destinations for more than fifty years.

Most inhabitants of the Gomrok area are fishermen – veteran and professional fishermen work in the people smuggling trade since they know sea routes and have boats big enough to transport illegal migrants.

Muhammad has no fishing gears, he only works with a primitive hook. He argues that large mafia and businessmen are behind the smuggling crisis, assisted by some fishermen, the most famous of whom is Bisso, who was arrested while he was at a café shortly after the Rosetta incident, a boat that sank off the coast of the city of Rosetta in the northern Governorate of Beheira in September 2016, claiming the lives of over 200 people of different nationalities.

It is no wonder that the traffickers who manage operations that smuggle young job seekers to European countries, especially Italy, Greece and France are called ‘merchants of death’. The rickety overloaded boats they use for their schemes has caused the majority of these trips to end in disaster.

The trade of illegal migration boomed following the revolution of 25 January, 2011 due to insecurity and chaos in the country. It has further worsened with the collapse of the economic situation and the high cost of living, forcing many young people to think seriously of traveling abroad by any means.

 Gomrok  not unique

Muhammad maintains that Gomrok is not the only outlet where the entire coast of Alexandria Governorate, especially Abu Qir, El Max Gulf, Dekhela and the port area, are used by illegal migration traffickers.

He says there are two types: first, those who prepare for the trip and receive and provide food to potential illegal migrants. The second type own substandard sailing boats that have been made to fish in shallow rather than deep waters. The owners however have replaced the sails with engines. They put 50-250 illegal migrants in each boat, which is several times higher than its capacity.

The fees for such a trip range from L.E. 20,000 to 50,000 for Egyptians  (US$ 1,250 to $3,125) and up to US$ 10,000 for non-Egyptians.

A trafficker usually verifies the identites of potential migrants to make sure none are security officers, a process that could last several months. After agreeing on the fees, they set the intended date of the trip. The trafficker then sets off with the migrants towards the beach in groups of no more than ten people after receiving half of the agreed amount, while he takes the other half of the fee on the beach.

Accusations against fishermen’s association

Last March, Hussein Gaber, a boat mechanic, filed a complaint against the Miami Fisherman Association (MFA), accusing it of being involved in organising illegal smuggling from the two islands of Koor and Garisha, off the coast of El Maamora area in Alexandria.

Gaber says he discovered it through his work on his small boat where he managed to monitor MFA’s smuggling activity from the two islands abandoned by fishermen, since boat owners used to throw their boat oil and refuse in the waters of the islands. This polluted the water and caused the two islands to turn into a haven for drug abuse.

Gaber says due to his monitoring, he was beaten and abused by “thugs” loyal to the traffickers, which prompted him to file a complaint. He notified the Egyptian Authority for Maritime Safety of MFA’s activities, but has not received a respose, he says.

Stepped up security

In the wake of the Rosetta incident, security forces in Alexandria stepped up their control of the beaches, which helped them arrest the largest smuggling network comprised of 25 fishermen, five businessmen and eight unemployed Egyptians.

According to security reports, the Coast Guard, within a year, foiled nine attempts of illegal migration, including two this past April, one in June, two in July and three in August.

A security source says illegal migrations increase during the month of Ramadan, holidays and parliamentary and legislative elections because the migration mafia thinks that security forces are busy at these times and cannot spot and arrest them.

Misapplying the law

Chief of fishermen in Alexandria Ashraf Zrek holds the Coast Guard accountable because they let a number of boats sail without a license, pointing out that 90 per cent of human trafficking starts in the Lake Burullus area in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate.

Zrek claims that fishermen are respected people and do not engage in such crimes, adding that the arrest of some fishermen was due to loopholes and a failure to enforce articles 123 and 124 of the law regulating fishing, which encourages some non-fishermen to obtain a fisherman license to work in smuggling.

Zrek also claims that independent trade unions have caused chaos by granting anyone a fisherman license against a tokenish fee of L.E. 70 (US $4).