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The News International - March 29, 2005
THE INVISIBLE BORDER
by Khurram Baig
It is a serious humanitarian problem: Indian and Pakistani fishermen
straying into the territorial waters of each other's country are
often arrested and imprisoned. Each fisherman arrested represents an
entire family deprived of its main breadwinner, not to mention the
fact that they are held without the basic legal and human rights that
every citizen, even of another country, is entitled to.
A limited exchange of fishermen has been made possible in recent
years, thanks to improving relations between the two countries and
consistent lobbying by human rights organisations. Under the
bilateral Pakistan-India Cultural agreement reached in 1988, each
side releases prisoners on an on-and-off basis, but more are arrested
just as frequently.
It is difficult to determine the exact number of those still
imprisoned in the two countries, since the governments do not release
the figures. The magnitude of the problem is indicated from the
numbers available with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, which claims
that 153 Pakistani fishermen and 802 Indian fishermen are in the
jails of the two countries. On January 2, 2005, Pakistan released 268
Indian fishermen, while another 529 were released on March 20, 2005.
India has just released 93 Pakistani fishermen, due to arrive in
Pakistan on Monday.
The agencies' task has been made difficult by the "exchange protocol"
-- the procedure followed for the release of the fishermen, which is
similar to the one applicable in the case of prisoners of war. At
every stage from the time of their arrest, the fishermen are kept in
the dark. They are not released even after the completion of their
terms of punishment: they have to wait for a formal exchange of
prisoners to take place.
Trades unions and labour support groups of both India and Pakistan,
and their common platform, the South Asian Labour Forum (SALF), have
been drawing the attention of the authorities of two countries to the
plight of the fishermen. It has demanded the unconditional release of
all the detained persons, and a stop to the mid-sea arrests and the
imprisonments, and has also often criticised the absence of a clear
policy of action to prevent the arrest and detention of fishermen.
Another SALF demand is that India and Pakistan mark out their
maritime boundary by buoys and other marking devices. It also
emphasises the need for an agreement among countries of the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that would enable
fishermen of the maritime member-nations to fish in the Arabian Sea,
the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal without hindrance. India,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Maldives share the resources
of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. India has
a long coastline, 7,417 km. Pakistan's coastline meets India's
1,640-km-long Gujarat coast. However, there are no bilateral
agreements on maritime boundaries between India and any of the South
Asian countries.
The provisions of the Maritime Zones of India Acts of 1976 and 1981,
under which the fishermen are detained and punished, do not
correspond with those of the United Nations Convention of the Law of
the Sea, of which India is a signatory. The Maritime Zone of Pakistan
Act is almost identical to the Indian law. The SALF has demanded that
these Acts be amended to bring them in consonance with the UN
Conventions. It has also requested that fishermen's organisations and
trade unions be represented at, and consulted on, bilateral or
regional negotiations on this issue.
For fishermen, the concept of marine borders is difficult to
comprehend. The ocean has been their workplace and their families
have been engaged in fishing for generations. So they feel they are
victimised for political reasons.
Apart from the fact that there are no signals on the sea demarcating
the maritime boundary between India and Pakistan, there is not even
an agreed boundary. For their mutual convenience, the two countries'
patrolling agencies have worked out an imaginary line in the Sir
Creek region, off the Kutch coast. Fishing boats, especially those
with engine failures, can easily, and do, stray into neighbouring
territory owing to tidal currents, wind force or cyclones. The
captured Pakistani and Indian boats have no navigational aids.
There is also the issue of retaliatory action. For example if the
Pakistan side captures Indian boats and fishermen, chances are that
Indian maritime forces will do the same at the earliest opportunity.
For many years now, fishermen's unions, boat owners' associations and
trade unions in the two countries have asked their respective
governments to work out a long-term solution. Since 1988, the Shree
Akhil Gujarat Machhimar Mahamandal, the Fishermen's Boat Association,
the Diu Porbandar Machhimar Boat Association, the Gujarat Marine
Products Exporters Association, the National Fishworkers Forum and
others have made several representations to the Indian government.
Similar efforts have been made on this side of the border. The
Fishermen's Cooperative Society and the Fishermen's Union, the
Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and the Pakistan
chapter of SALF have taken up the issue with the government.
The authorities of the two countries invariably cite national
interests. In the process, they appear to have lost sight of two
major questions: the fishermen's right to livelihood and the
incompatibility of the countries' laws with regard to the seas and
internal laws and conventions.
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