Permanent confiscation of Tamil Nadu fishing boats caught trespassing

Sri Lanka's courts have started to permanently confiscate Tamil Nadu (TN) fishing boats apprehended for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Sri Lankan (SL) waters.

On April 4, a second TN fishing boat arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) was forfeited by the Kilinochchi Magistrate’ Court. The skipper and crew pleaded guilty to charges of IUU fishing.

The Magistrate sentenced each to 2 years in prison, suspended for 5 years, under the provisions of the Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act of 1979 and its amendments (No. 1 of 2018). They were immediately released and deported.

Their vessel, however, is now the property of the SL State. “The prosecution of the crew for IUU fishing in SL waters, under the Fisheries ( RFFB) Act, addresses two critical issues in the campaign to end IUU fishing by TN trawlers in SL waters,” said Independent Fisheries Consultant Dr Steve Creech. “Firstly, it provides a meaningful deterrent to dissuade TN boat owners from engaging in IUU fishing in SL waters.”

“Hereafter, TN boat owners risk losing ownership of their vessels, if their vessels are arrested by the SLN for IUU fishing in SL waters. Secondly, the actions of the court void the ‘humanitarian crisis’ and ‘political issues’ that arose frequently, since the end of the civil conflict, when hundreds of TN fish workers arrested for IUU fishing in SL waters, were imprisoned indefinitely under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act,” Dr Creech said.

“The TN trawler is no longer a threat to the current or future livelihoods of northern SL fishermen,” he said.

"There are several similar cases going on in the Magistrates’ Courts of the Jaffna Peninsula and Kilinochchi," said Stanislaus Celestine, a Jaffna-based Lawyer who appeared for the Fishermen's Cooperative Societies Unions in Kilinochchi and Jaffna, who are the aggrieved parties.

In the last instant in Kilinochchi, there were 11 accused. They were charged under the Act, as amended, and pleaded guilty. “Under the circumstances, the only option available to court was to forfeit the boat and everything in it,” he said.

The Kayts Magistrate too, had confiscated more than 6 boats. “Now the cases are going on the right path,” Mr Celestine said. “We want the Defence Ministry to deploy more SLN patrols to prevent these TN fishing boats from entering SL waters, without a valid permit.”

“Earlier, the fishermen would be repatriated and the owners collect their boats later,” said Chinthaka Fernando, a Lawyer from the chambers of Chandaka Jayasundere P. C. “We think that, the judiciary upholding the amendment will now serve as a deterrent.”

Mr Fernando was part of a Legal team led by Mr Jayasundere that represented 3 Fisher unions in their case against the Attorney General’s Department which led to an amendment of the Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act. He was recently in Jaffna and Mannar conducting workshops for Government officers, police, SLN and fishermen's leaders on the amendment to the Act and how it could be used.