Confessions of a human smuggler

By Linah Benyawa

He is facing charges related to piracy in the Indian Ocean coastline in Somalia, but Ahmed Mohamed Omar vows he is not a pirate.

Omar recently shocked a Mombasa court when he told the magistrate that together with seven other suspects charged with him, they were not pirates but human traffickers.

"We are fishermen but we had left the business for a while and were doing human trafficking," Omar told the court. He said that that they were returning to Somalia from Yemen when they were arrested.

A hooded German commando escorts a suspected pirate arrested in the Indian Ocean. Photos: Maarufu Mohamed/ Standard

Speaking from Shimo la Tewa Prison, he said they were mistaken as suspected pirates because they were heavily armed.

"We carry fishing gears like grappling hooks and fishing nets while smuggling people as a disguise that we are fishermen. But the weapons made us to be mistaken for pirates," he lamented. "Somalia is a dangerous country and that is why we are always armed."

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He said they don’t force people into the trade adding that they find it very normal to ferry people to different parts of the world to look for greener pastures.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes smuggling of Migrants as a crime involving the procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a state of which that person is not a national or resident.

Breeding ground

Human trafficking on the other hand is defined as the practice of humans being tricked, lured, coerced or otherwise removed from their home or country and then forced to work with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative.

But Omar said they have at no time lured, tricked or forced people into being taken out of the country. He said their clients are the ones who persuade them to ferry them to the destination of their choice.

"In Somalia, everyone wants to survive, we have to do the illegal trade even without caring whether its illegal," he said.

Omar said he had been fishing for four years and was aware that the Gulf of Aden is dangerous and that pirates existed. Currently there are more than 130 suspected pirates remanded at the Shimo la Tewa Prison. Ten have already been convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

But Somalia is not only know for pirates but has also developed a reputation as a breeding ground for terrorists linked to the Al Qaeda terror group.