Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman's Ministry of Manpower arrested 24 expat fishermen for operating without a licence in a joint campaign carried out by the Royal Oman Police, Ministry of Manpower, and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
A statement by the MoM on Wednesday read, "The Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, with the support of the Royal Oman Police, carried out a campaign against foreign individuals working in fishing without a license in the state of Mahout."
The MoAF added, "(Twenty four) 24 people were found to be in violation of fishing laws around dawn of today (Wednesday). They were handed over to the appropriate authorities, where legal procedure will be carried out against them."
An official with the MoM said, "On our side, we follow such procedure based on reports or also by carefully monitoring the labor market to find any anomalies. In this case, we'll be treating the case on our end as a standard infraction of article 28 of Oman's current labor code, when a non-Omani works in a craft that has been deemed Omanized in its entirety. There may be other procedures that relate to the MoAF."
According to Omani fishing law, fishing boats and fishermen may only carry out their craft after obtaining a license, on which will be stated the type of vessel, fishing methods and equipment, and the number and specialization of crew. On this license will also be stated the designated fishing areas the vessel may operate in. There are also restrictions on fishing methods, barricades, and mass fishing using explosives.
When these laws are broken, "The individual will be fined no less than OMR300-5000 and/or be sent to prison for 1-3 months."
