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TN trawlers: Govt.’s arrest-and-release policy decried
View(s):The Government has started releasing Tamil Nadu fishing trawlers caught poaching in Sri Lankan waters between 2013 and last year, with the latest batch of 13 being returned to their owners yesterday. This brings the total number of trawlers returned this year alone to 27. The moves have attracted widespread condemnation from Northern fishermen who are once again observing incursions by Tamil Nadu trawlers carrying out illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Sri Lankan waters.
Scores of trawlers were detained by the Navy in recent years. But a majority of them have been released with no fines, making a mockery of the act of sending the Navy out to apprehend them, said Thiyagaraja Waradas, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Colombo.
The Tamil Nadu fishermen and their trawlers were taken in by the Navy for violating Sri Lanka’s law, the international maritime boundary and engaging in illegal and predatory fishing. Mr Waradas said the boats were being released at the behest of the President who “disregarded all requests by fishermen to former Fisheries Minister Wijith Vijithamuni Soysa”.
“The legal implications of this are that Sri Lanka sets a precedent for bending its own laws and that it is not good for the sustainable fisheries methods we want to promote,” he pointed out. “The boats were taken into custody under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act. Under the law, they must come to court but this was not done. They were held in detention. By simply ignoring the law, there is room for manipulation and extra-legal action.
“What is the point in sending your navy out and arresting them if only to release the vessel with no penalty,” he asked. “It is a waste of public taxpayers’ money.” Mr Waradas also decried that Tamil Nadu boat owners were permitted by the Sri Lanka Government, facilitated by the Sri Lanka Navy, to come via sea to the North to collect their boats. “A team arrived here,” he said. “They were allowed to come to the country via sea. This was not a friendly visit. They were people accused of illegal fishing in our waters. Sri Lanka Navy has been facilitating for them to take their vessels back. What kind of hypocrisy is that?”
“This is not a good practice,” he continued. “We protest that Tamil Nadu fishermen should not enter into our waters illegally. Then we allow them to come to Sri Lankan waters and take their boats back.” Fishermen are not happy about the decision to release boats. And, politically, there is a dilution of Sri Lanka’s policy to protect its own territorial waters and of measures taken in the last three years to curtail IUU fishing here–that is, to have regular arrests and prosecution, retain the vessel and release fishermen.
“What’s the point of arresting if you are just releasing?” Mr Waradas asked. “What is the guarantee these same vessels will not venture back into Sri Lankan waters again?”