Precarious Living

This morning, a Indian fishing boat passed us at very close quarters. Although I gave an attention sign on our whistle and he had to change course for us, he kept his course and speed. Anyway her skipper was not an afraid man. When you're out at sea for 10-15 days to make a precarious living, you hardly can allow yourself to be an afraid man. Can you imagine working and sleeping, more than 60 nautical miles offshore, with four man in an open boat like this? There collegues more to the north suffer even more. When crossing the Indian-Pakistan border at sea without knowing it, the Pakistani Coastguard will arrest them immediately. The arrested fishermen are unable to inform their families who suffer great uncertainty about their fate. They usually have no consular access until they have served their sentences and are due to be released.

When fishermen, typically the main bread earners for their families, are arrested and incarcerated in the other country, not only they, but their families back home, suffer immensely. Their families depend upon them not only for their daily bread and butter but also for children's education, dowries for sisters or daughters, or to look after old or ill parents who were unable to earn.

At this moment, more than 450 Indian fishermen are kept in Pakistani jail without any form of trial.