Forty Billion Centimes (DA) Of Losses In Sea Fishing Due To “Harraga” In Annaba Province

Italian Minister of the Interior Marco Menetti has revealed that his country’s authorities in Sardinia have seized 143 fishing boats since the beginning of this year, which was used by the Algerian “harraga” or illegal migrants to reach the coast of his country, adding these vessels are now held in the ports of the south of the island.

The Italian Interior Minister said in response to a question by members of the Senate of the Party “Frattelli d’Italia” in the island of Sardinia, led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, that the number of Algerian boats that arrived in the island totaled 143 until last November adding that they are currently being held by the various Italian security services.

According to the Italian official, the number of Algerian “harraga” steadily flocking into his country has increased by 500 percent since 2015, when they numbered only 343, but reached 1,225 in 2016, and jumped through 2017 to 1,929 on board 143 boats, that is an average of 13 “harraga” per boat, he indicated.

These figures show a severe financial drain on the fishing sector in Annaba and its vicinity. According to the head of the National Fisheries Union, Mr. Hocine Balout, “one boat, in addition to the engine, costs about 50 million centimes, including 15 million centimes for the boat and 35 million others for the engine at least.

According to the spokesman, the activity of at least one boat is estimated at 10 thousand dinars a day in the worst case, and if we calculate the number of days possible for fishing per year, they are within 200 out of the 365 days as the boat can have annual revenue reaching at least 200 million centimes (DA).

In a simple calculation, the commandeered boats in Italy (Sardinia) could have contributed about 29 billion centimes to sea resources incomes, accounting for 1 million centimes per day and 200 days of activity per year out of 365 days all along the Annaba coastline.

According to Mr. Hocine Balout, the biggest loser behind all this is the state treasury, especially since most of the boats and engines that arrive in Italy and used by the “Harraga” for their sea crossings have been granted to Algerian job-seeking youth under the mechanisms of “ANSEJ” and “CNAC” Agencies.