Page 80 - MDSL Final

MARITIME DOCTRINE OF SRI LANKA
refugees and travel across the region. Similarly, this could create an
opportunity for the human trafficking gangs to conduct their activities
freely.

Some of the states in IOR are used by criminals to organise human
trafficking and illegal emigration from one place to another. Above the
ethical necessity to fight these trafficking, the situation is worrying
regarding navigation risks of unsecured ships crossing important
maritime routes for a very long transit, in particular in the Sri Lanka’s
Search and Rescue Region.

More recently even multi-day fishing trawlers have been used for this
illegal transfer to Australia which is a dangerous journey taking 15-20
days to reach Cocos or Christmas island. However, bilateral dialogues
have taken place at very high levels between the two countries and
operational cooperation through the sharing of information between
the two respective Navies, Coast Guards and law enforcement agencies
have done a great deal to significantly curb this trend.

Initiatives have also been taken and in progress to establish a fully-fledged
Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre (MRCC) by The Government of Sri
Lanka, where Navy is taking a leading role among all other stake holders.

Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing

IUU includes all fishing that breaks fisheries laws and regulations or
occurs outside their reach. Illegal fishing usually means without a
licence, in an area where fishing is banned, with prohibited gear, over a
quota, or for protected species. Unreported and under-reported catches
by licenced vessels looking to flout quotas or catch prohibited species.
Unregulated fishing occurs beyond 200nm of coastal states on the high
seas which cover almost 45% of our planet. Inadequate regulations and
enforcement mechanism in this vast area allow uncontrolled IUU fishing.

The IUU fishing contributes to overexploitation of fish stocks and is
a hindrance to the recovery of fish populations and ecosystems. This
problem represents a major loss of revenue, particularly to some
of the developing or under developed countries in the world where

62 To Nurture a Stable Environment at Sea