Sri Lankan fishermen with starving families take to streets against high fuel prices

Workers accuse the government of ignoring the severe crisis situation. The price of paraffin has jumped from 25 cents to almost one euro per litre. The loss of income is reflected in the inability to feed families. Fishing and related sectors employ more than 10% of the 22 million inhabitants.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - "How can we put our boats out to sea without paraffin? And how will we be able to feed our children if we don't cast our nets? Then let the government feed our families'. It is a desperate cry of alarm, and similar to that of many other colleagues, that raised to AsiaNews by Catholic fisherman Loyal Fernando, spokesperson for the protest in the Thoduwawa area of Chilaw, one of the main towns in Puttalam district, North-Western Province. He points the finger at the government and the highest institutions of Sri Lanka, which seems to be purposely ignoring the concerns of fishermen, especially the smallest ones but who are at the same time the majority of the sector, which has always been one of the main 'resources' for the economy of the country and the entire area. 

The latest government statistics show that fishing and related sectors employ more than 10% of the 22 million inhabitants of the entire island. This is why the crisis risks having heavy repercussions on a nation already marked by a very serious crisis that is not only economic, but also has repercussions in institutions and civil society. Aruna Roshantha, from Negombo, adds that so far the executive 'has no programme for fishermen. Parliament does not say a single word about us. They only speak,' he accuses, 'of programmes to protect their place. Oil is sent to different places whenever the ministry feels like it. This causes conflicts among fishermen'. 

Speaking also on behalf of many other families, Aruna emphasises that after three months the street struggle for rights and protections for the workers in the sector, who are now 'without food', has resumed. "There is no way to live. We cannot afford to stay at home when our children are crying from hunger. We need," he warns, "fuel at a fixed price. Otherwise, give us food. That is all we ask'. "We demand,' he concludes, 'the payment of at least 40 thousand rupees (about 110 euro) per family for the last three months, as compensation for lost work. And we also want paraffin at reasonable prices, not at the speculative prices' of recent days. 

In the past, fuel for boats used to cost 87 rupees per litre (around 25 euro cents), but in the last period prices have shot up to 340 rupees per litre (almost one euro). The fishermen are therefore complaining of unsustainable costs and are demanding a cap on increases and a return to 'reasonable' prices, or else 'let the government feed our families'. A demand shared and relaunched by Herman Kumara, national coordinator of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO), who tells AsiaNews about the state of profound crisis in which Small Scale Fishers (Ssf) find themselves. They, he warns, do not receive an adequate amount of fuel and more than 75% of them have left the sector. 'However,' he charges, 'it is clear that this government does not listen to the poorest and most marginalised, who contribute to feeding the country. 

Protests and demonstrations that have been going on since 17 August have touched several villages in Sri Lanka, from Karukupanei to Muthupanthia, and even in districts in the north such as Mullaitivu, Jaffna and Mannar, or in the south, from Galle to Matara. "We can consider all this,' Herman Kumara concludes with a bitter joke, 'as a gift to fishermen from the government in the UN International Year of Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture.