Bahrain Mirror: The Al-Ayam local newspaper said that the Qatari authorities are holding 33 fishing boats for Al-Dair and Al-Hidd sailors.

The newspaper reported the sailors saying that the Qatari authorities held a number of their boats few months ago, claiming they entered Qatari territorial waters. After holding some of them for 20 days and paying fines for the Qatari authorities, the boats were not returned and only the sailors were released.

The sailors added that 33 boats were seized by the Qatari authorities. The boats are owned by professional sailors from Al-Dair and Al-Hidd. These sailors depend on sea for their living and they own official licenses stating that they work in sea.

They said "we ask the competent parties to rapidly take action to find a solution to maintain our only livelihood source. We also demand the authorities to issue us replacement licenses holding the numbers of the seized boats until they get released."

Arabic Version