The North African Food Sovereignty Network (NAFSN) and the Transnational Institute (TNI) will organize a webinar on Saturday 30 May 2020 at 14:00 Tunis time (15:00 Amsterdam time and 16:00 Palestine time) to put a spotlight on the situation of fishers in Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Palestine.
Description
Small-scale fisher-folks in the North African region contribute to providing food for millions of people. But they find themselves in a catastrophic social situation: low wages, inadequate compensation for work accidents and very long working hours, in addition to the limited awareness of the laws regulating the sector. Moreover, neoliberal plans and neo-colonial trade agreements concluded by North African governments, including with the European Union, favor industrial fishing and allow big boats to overfish in their waters, threatening
the livelihoods of traditional and small-scale fisher-folks. While in Palestine, this group suffers severely from the violent oppression and restrictions imposed by the occupation.
The situation of small-scale fisher-folks worsened in the context of the COVID19 pandemic, and their working conditions exacerbated, as some maritime ports are still normally operating, exposing the lives of
millions of workers to the risk of infection, and others have stopped working altogether, bringing to the surface the dilemma of fisher-folks’ dispossession through dismissal from work without any compensation .
Speakers
Brahim Mounassir, General Secretary of National Union of Fishers Coastal and Offshore fishing (Morocco)
Mohamed Yahia Mohmeden from the Professional Union for Fishing and Maritime Services (Mauritania)
Tunisia: a testimony of the conditions of women in the fishing sector in Tunisia.
Saad Ziada from the Union of Agricultural Work Committees – Gaza Strip (Palestine).
Facilitator: Torkia Chaibi, from the Association of One Million Rural Women.
Duration of the seminar: 1 hour and 30 minutes