Footprints: Course charted by aliens

Published May 26, 2015
FISHERMEN, mostly from Bangladesh or Myanmar, registering themselves at the National Alien Registration Authority at the fish harbour in Karachi.—Fahim Siddiqi / White Star
FISHERMEN, mostly from Bangladesh or Myanmar, registering themselves at the National Alien Registration Authority at the fish harbour in Karachi.—Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

THIS scorching Saturday afternoon is just another day at the Karachi fish harbour. The place is swarming with fishermen, trolleys, ice and fish crates, and sweating labourers.

Right away, I find the person I came for: I meet Sahibullah, an Afghan alien.

“Take the first right and then go on straight,” he guides me to the National Alien Registration Authority (Nara) office at the harbour. For the past five years, this office has been registering alien fishermen operating in Pakistani waters.

“What are you going for?” he asks me, and then observes: “It’s closed today.”

Though these men have been fishing off the Karachi coast for decades, they are not Pakistani, even though other countries may regard them as such. Their numbers are rising; some believe they are outnumbering the locals fast, though many don’t see them as a threat to local human resource.

For the men from Bangladesh or Myanmar, perhaps there is little difference between fishing in the Indian Ocean or the Arabian Sea or the Andaman Sea. But many might wonder at the Afghans, whose country is landlocked but who have also learned the tricks of the trade. Sahibullah is one of them.

“Initially I used to work at a boat-building yard as a labourer,” he says, as I ask him how he came to become a fisherman in his 40s. “Then I realised that it’s not paying much compared to what is earned by the fishermen. My contractor helped me learn marine fishing skills through some local fishermen. I am now registered with Nara and undertake a fishing journey at least twice a month with my fellow fishermen, most of whom are locals.”

Seeing aliens working at the fish harbour is nothing that would surprise anyone visiting the city’s oldest commercial centre. However, their number has grown so much over the years that it has forced the authorities to initiate measures to keep watch.

“Fishing is sensitive business when your marine borders touch Indian waters,” a Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority official tells me. “Obviously the number of aliens has grown over the years. Bengalis and Burmese top the list followed by Afghans. Anyone fishing from our coastline and in our [Pakistani] waters is seen as Pakistani. But we have to maintain the record at our end to differentiate between locals and aliens.”

The data provided by the authorities at the harbour echoes the fact that the number of aliens at the harbour and those fishing in Pakistani waters is growing. Currently, there are over 8,000 Nara-registered alien fishermen with the registration working here every day.

For the fisherfolk, the trend does not necessarily mean that the number of aliens is growing, but it does suggest that locals are fast losing interest in the centuries-old profession. The new generation is no longer willing to continue their ancestors’ legacy.

“Fishing stock in our waters is fast depleting,” says Muhammad Ali Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. “Naturally, this has affected the regular catch and, in a trickledown effect, the income of the fishermen. So the locals are forced to explore other options. For instance, the women of fishing families used to participate in the work by peeling shrimp and doing other jobs like this. Now, there are several women from fishing families that work as maids or are factory workers. In turn, the gap is being filled by aliens.”

I’m walking around to get a general glimpse of business at the jetty where boats are anchoring one after another with fresh catch. The languages spoken by the labourers help one understand the multinational culture thriving at the harbour. Here, I meet Bashar-ul-Amin of Ibrahim Hyderi village, who is returning after an eight-day fishing voyage.

“My father was a fisherman in Bangladesh so I was very well aware of the basics,” he tells me. “When I arrived here in 1987, I used to work at restaurants and teashops as a waiter, sometimes as a salesman in some stores. Then my cousin called me from Chittagong and asked me to meet someone at the harbour. Luckily, I got work here and it’s been 20 years or so now. New ones [Bengalis] are still joining us, though not at the pace which we used to see about five or 10 years ago.”

Despite realisation about the growth of aliens around them, there is no sense of threat or resentment that I can feel among the locals. Allah Bux, one of the boat owners, has reasons for that.

“You can’t stop it,” he says. “They have been here for ages. Their numbers might have grown over the years, but we have never felt threatened. What do we want and what does the government want? They work honestly and follow the rules. If locals avoid it [fishing], someone has to fill the gap. So they are working. But keeping a check on them is the government’s job, not mine.”

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2015

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