JEDDAH, 5 September 2003 — Ghanim Alnajjar, the UN expert on human rights in Somalia, has voiced concern that unlawful fishing, toxic-waste discarding and people-smuggling are widespread in Somalia’s territorial waters.
He said that foreign fishing vessels were unlawfully exploiting the fish in the country’s coastline.
“From the information I have, the majority of these ships are European. Human traffickers are using Somalia’s unpoliced waters and Somali boats to carry illegal migrants from Bangladesh and several Arab countries en route to the West.
“The international and local communities need to work together to address the matter urgently,” Alnajjar told reporters on Wednesday, after concluding a 10-day fact-finding mission to Somalia. He described one recent incident in which armed men on board a vessel forced passengers at gunpoint to jump into the sea.
Alnajjar said that he will submit his findings to the UN High Commission for Human Rights later this year, adding that he planned to recommend that a body be created to monitor and protect Somalia’s coastline, just as the international community has in the absence of a government created an agency to control air traffic over the country.
Speaking about the internally displaced people after visiting some northern and southern cities, Alnajjar said that there were some 370,000 such people in Somalia, most of them living in abject poverty and in areas under the control of armed faction leaders.
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An official of the northeastern region of Puntland has disclosed that a group of migrants, who have been waiting to be smuggled into Yemen and the Gulf states, have been arrested by his administration. Abdishakur Mire Adan, Puntland’s deputy information minister, told UN humanitarian Website that 52 migrants, who were trying to get on boats to Yemen, were arrested in the coastal village of Marer recently
The crackdown comes two weeks after at least 30 would-be refugees, who left Puntland, drowned off the coast of Yemen. He said that those arrested included 20 Ethiopians and 10 suspected traffickers.
“We have stationed police in areas such as Marer, favored by traffickers, to cut off as many exit points as we can. We need assistance from the countries which are potential destinations of the migrants to stop such trafficking. Many international organizations and governments make statements deploring human trafficking but do nothing to help stop it, “ he noted.
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According to media reports, the administration of Juba Valley Alliance, which controls the southern town of Kismayo, has launched a security operation aimed at clearing guns from the town’s streets.
“The operation has a dual purpose. To encamp all the JVA militias and then identify and arrest the freelance gunmen who have been the major cause of insecurity in the town. “We have put all JVA forces in four camps thereby keeping them out of town. Anyone carrying a gun outside of these camps will be treated as a criminal.,” a JVA spokesman was quoted as saying.
