“مردم ایران به اندازه‌ی کافی قوی هستند تا مشکلات خود را حل کنند.”

“The people of Iran are strong enough to solve their own problems.”
Masoud Raeesi

More than twenty-six months have passed since twenty-one Baloch fishermen from the province of Sistan and Baluchestan, who had set out from the shores of the Baluchestan Sea (Makran) to fish, were kidnapped by pirates. Amidst the silence of the government and the media inside Iran, these fishermen, who had embarked on a two-month journey with their fishing boat “Ibrahim Forouzanmehr” in the open waters, were attacked by a group of Somali pirates on April 26, 2015, on their way back to their city of Konarak. The pirates abducted all 21 crew members along with the boat and transferred them to Somalia.

Now, after more than 780 days since the kidnapping of the crew of the boat, 8 of them have died due to poor health and nutrition, 4 have successfully escaped with the help of the Somali government, and one has escaped alone from the hands of pirates and, after several days of walking, reached Mogadishu – the capital of Somalia – and was transferred to Iran by the government of this country. The pirates have divided the remaining 8 hostages into two groups and, in exchange for the release of 4 hostages – including the sailor and his relatives – have demanded 300,000 dollars from their families, and for the other 4, they have demanded 30,000 dollars for each person. This is while, according to local reports, Mr. Forouzanmehr once sent the agreed amount of 350 million tomans to a mediator in the Emirates, but unfortunately, there has been no news of the mediator since then. The families of these individuals

In this regard, a group of Baloch social and human rights activists launched a campaign called “Free Iranian Fishermen” in the fall of 2016 after the government’s silence and the death of several hostages due to hunger and thirst in order to save their lives. This campaign was launched to draw the attention of government officials, domestic and foreign media, and international organizations to quickly release the hostages and was somewhat successful in bringing attention to the issue.

During this time, hashtags such as #FreeBalochFishermen and #FreeIranianSailors have been launched by a number of Iranian users on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in relation to the situation of eight Baloch fishermen who have been detained for eight months. This has played a significant role in bringing attention to this issue in the media.

On Monday, November 7, 2016 (17 Aban 1395), three days after the start of the online campaign for the freedom of Iranian fishermen, Bahram Ghasemi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, stated in a press conference: “We have no relationship with Somalia and we have severed ties.” He also did not consider this announcement to be beneficial for these individuals. This caused the issue to be pushed aside from the headlines and even the families of these fishermen refused to speak to the media due to pressure. The statement of the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led to the end of the campaign and its activities and news coverage. Despite these pressures, many Baloch social activists, who were aware of the situation in the region and some of whom were close to the families of these sailors and had realized that unfortunately, some of them had turned to piracy due to extreme poverty, continued to bring attention to this issue in the media in order to

But on the seventh of Bahman last year, the release of several videos from these fishermen separately, caused their names to once again be on everyone’s lips. In these videos, recorded on December 26, 2016, four of these hostages, named “Jalal Jamal al-Din Dehwari”, “Ibrahim Baluch Nia”, “Abdullah Nohani”, and “Mohammad Sharif Panahandeh”, after introducing themselves, asked for help from the Iranian government, as well as Iranian benefactors, international organizations, and human rights groups, to be freed from the hands of sea pirates. These videos showed that they were very weak and emaciated physically.

The prolonged hostage-taking and lack of government action has caused concern and distress for the families of fishermen. These families are poor and do not have the means to even gather one million tomans to pay for the release of their loved ones. They say they have approached security and government officials, but unfortunately, every agency has told them that the release of their loved ones is not their responsibility and they cannot do anything to secure their freedom. The fishermen’s families also criticize why news about the fate of their loved ones has not been covered as much in national media outlets.

Many social-political and human rights activists of Baloch are of the opinion that alongside other forms of discrimination imposed on the people of the region, including “imposing poverty” in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan and other Baloch-inhabited areas in its vicinity, as well as “creating a secure environment” in this province, the deliberate disregard for the lives of Baloch fishermen by the Iranian government is also intentional. However, now with the acquisition of more than seventy-three percent of the votes in the twelfth government from this province, they expect that the government of Hassan Rouhani will also prioritize the wishes of the people of this region and the families of these hostages, without considering national and religious differences. They hope that through the United Nations and other human rights organizations, despite not having diplomatic relations with Somalia, they will make serious efforts to free these sailors and, in addition to regaining some of the trust of these people, fulfill the expectations of the children of