Almost 30km north of Damietta, at the end of a very narrow and unpaved road alongside a dirty canal filled with rubbish, lies the small fishermen village of Ezbet El-Borg.
It is rarely visited by officials, and the hundreds of fishermen in the village live an anonymous existence, while facing the dangers of sailing out on the Mediterranean Sea on a near daily basis.
“Everything we have was made through self-efforts and self-funding such as donations by fishermen themselves,” says Araby Khalil, Secretary-General of the Fishermen Fund.
Ezbet El-Borg’s fishermen live day-by-day, struggling to make a living. Having been in the business for decades, they say they have developed themselves over the years, while the state has not contributed to their improvement or empowerment since the 1980s.
With no health insurance and small pensions after the age of 65, Khalil says fishermen have never cost the state much.
Photos by Jihad Abaza
