When 16 Egyptian fishermen who had penetrated Tunisian territorial waters without a permit were detained by the Tunisian authorities last month, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry declared that they would be released soon. However, three weeks later the fishermen are still in detention in Tunisia, reports Doaa El-Bey. The fishermen, who have complained of mistreatment in the Tunisian jail in which they are being held and of the neglect of the Egyptian authorities, decided to go on hunger strike to protest against their plight last week, according to Ahmed Nassar, head of the fishermen's union in the Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate. The fishermen, all from the village of Borg Megheizal in Kafr Al-Sheikh, are accused of illegally penetrating Tunisian territorial waters. All attempts to release them have failed up till now, and the Tunisian courts have rejected a request from the men's Egyptian lawyer asking for their release or a reduced fine. The Tunisian authorities have fined the men LE600,000, and the owner of the boat cannot afford to pay this fine, saying that it represents half the value of his boat. Nassar, who has denounced what he calls Tunisian inflexibility in the case, said that the Tunisian authorities were not providing the men with sufficient food. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has said that the men are being looked after by Egypt's embassy in Tunisia. Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti said in a meeting with the press last Thursday that the embassy was caring for the men, helping them to stay in contact with their families and providing them with legal representation. He called on Egyptian fishermen to refrain from fishing or illegally entering the territorial waters of neighbouring countries without a permit or violating the fishing regulations of these states. Last week, the Egyptian chargé d'affaires in Tunisia, Noha Khedr, visited the detained fishermen in order to check on them and provide them with their needs. After the visit, Khedr said that the men were in good health and that the embassy was negotiating with the Tunisian authorities to end their detention. However, the present case is not the first time that Egyptian fishermen have run into difficulties abroad. According to one diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, the fishermen are suffering from a scarcity of fisheries in the areas where they live, causing them to sail to more distant waters. They then run the risk of entering the territorial waters of other countries, such as Libya, Tunisia and sometimes even Saudi Arabia or Yemen, and they can then be subject to detention or fines by these states. “The Egyptian embassies in these countries start negotiations with the authorities to release them if the fishermen are detained. Sometimes they succeed, and sometimes they fail, as in the present case. But unless the root causes of the problem — difficult economic conditions and the scarcity of fish — are resolved, there are bound to be more such cases in the future,” he said. The fishermen had sailed on 10 October to Malta, and they were then detained five days later off the Tunisian port of Sfax for violating fishing regulations and penetrating territorial waters without a permit. There have been similar incidents before, the most tragic of which happened last year with the deaths of two fishermen. Two Egyptian sailors were also killed and two others wounded last September when Tunisian coastguards fired on an Egyptian fishing flotilla near the Kerkennah Islands off Tunisia. The boat in which the men died had been among 10 Egyptian fishing boats that had illegally crossed into Tunisian waters. A few months earlier, an Egyptian fishing vessel was stopped for illegally fishing off Zarzis in southern Tunisia. Its crew were arrested, but were then released two months later following the payment of a fine. Last year, 58 Egyptian fishermen were held in Libya on charges of violating its regional waters. They were later released after the payment of a fine, the intervention of Egyptian diplomats in Libya having prevented them from being sent for trial before a Libyan military court. Egypt's fishermen, especially in the Delta, often seek better fishing areas further afield, taking them as far as the territorial waters of Tunisia, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Malta or Libya. Sometimes they enter other countries' territorial waters unknowingly or by mistake. The fishermen have repeatedly complained of the difficult conditions they have been facing and they have called on the authorities to listen to their grievances. Although the Foreign Ministry has repeatedly issued warnings to fishermen about entering the territorial waters of other countries illegally, some of them are still prepared to take the risk, arguing that dying at sea is better than starving at home.
