FISHERMEN are allegedly being forced at gunpoint to pay crippling rents to a landlord who has hijacked large areas of sea off Sitra's coast. His henchmen have repeatedly threatened fishermen at gunpoint for objecting to paying rent for his illegal fish traps, claim villagers, councillors and MPs

A parliamentary probe into the landlord's control over large areas of coastal waters will be launched when parliament reopens next month.

Parliament's public utilities and environment affairs committee is backing the Central Municipal Council, which is trying to take away 75 allegedly illegal fish traps from the landlord.

It wants them registered officially with Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife and rented to village fishermen at reasonable rates.

The landlord has allegedly taken over large areas of the Sitra coastal waters and is renting out sections of the sea and traps to large fishing businesses, who in turn sub-let them to poor village fishermen.

He also rents traps directly to other fishermen, who can no longer afford to pay, say campaigners.

MPs, municipal councillors and fishermen's representatives inspected the sea area by boat on Sunday.

Parliament public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman Jawad Fairooz said that he didn't know the situation was so bad until he saw it first-hand.

"The landlord, who is controlling lands in the sea up to Saudi and Qatar's borders, has no permit from the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife to set up any fish traps," he said.

"There are no deeds for the sea areas he controls and any money this landlord has ever collected has effectively been stolen from the people, because he is not entitled to it.

"The commission is the only organisation allowed to set or rent fish traps and the contracts fishermen have been forced to sign with this landlord are invalid, so the commission should be going for a lawsuit."

"As MPs, we are very upset with what's going on and when Crown Prince and BDF Commander-in-Chief Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa said that no minister is above the law, this should apply to VIPs too."

Mr Fairooz said that the landlord had also taken over huge plots of land.

"We can't be quiet on what's going on, because this landlord needs to learn a lesson, on how to respect the law and that he is similar to everyone else in this country," he said.

Area councillor Sadiq Rabea'a said the fishermen had been forced to pay these illegal rents.

"Those working for the landlord have several times threatened fishermen at gunpoint," he said.

"This landlord has been trying to take control of the sea for a very long time and 25 years ago some fishermen decided to give their fish traps to the Jaffari Waqf (Endowment) Directorate, to ensure that he doesn't take them.

"But, he put markers in front of the endowment's fish traps, telling fishermen that he would set up fish traps in front of theirs, so they had to lease the sea area from him.

"They had to pay rent for the sea areas marked by the landlord to ensure that their businesses were not affected, since fish get trapped in the first trap and the one behind gets nothing."

Mr Rabea'a urged the fishermen to stop paying the landlord. "No one is entitled to take taxes and fees on property he does not own and if fishermen don't make a stand, they will be paying thousands of dinars monthly to this landlord," he said.

Area MP Sayed Haidar Al Sitri said that the landlord thought he was above the law and that is why he should be taught a lesson.

"It is the same landlord who blocked off Malkiya's beach with 10 fish traps, which led to violent clashes last month and he is known for doing anything he wants without being stopped. But things have changed now," he said.

Mr Al Sitri said that the commission had banned the use of nylon fish nets 10 years ago, but a number of fishermen were still using them without being caught or punished.

Some were spotted during the tour. "The nets are dangerous to the country's marine resources, but the government is not doing anything to stop those using them and from what we have seen most of those using them are expatriates, who should not be in the sea in the first place," he said.