47 fishermen arrested by SL return to Chennai

As many as  47 fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan coast guard two months ago returned to Chennai on Friday morning.

The group of fishermen from Rameshwaram, Nagapattinam, and Pudukottai went fishing in the sea last year. On December 18 around 1.30 am the Sri Lankan coast guard surrounded them and seized the boats and arrested the fishermen for crossing the marine  boundaries. The following day the coast guard arrested another group of fishermen for crossing the border and a totally of 56 Tamil Nadu fishermen were sent to the prison and nine boats were seized.

Later the families of the fishermen requested the Tamil Nadu CM and the Central government to take steps to release the fishermen from Lankan prison. In January with the help of the Indian Embassy, the 56 fishermen were released from the prison and were handed to the Indian Embassy. Since most of the fishermen tested positive for COVID they could not send them back to Tamil Nadu and all of them were asked to be in quarantine for two weeks.

Last week the few fishermen who tested negative for COVID reached the Chennai airport and they were sent to their native by the government officials. The rest of the 47 fishermen reached the Chennai airport around 4.20 am on Friday. Since the fishermen came in on an emergency visa without a passport the immigration officials conducted inquiry with the fishermen for a few hours and later after 7am  they came to the exit and were welcomed by the fisheries department officials . They were sent to their hometown in vehicles which were arranged by the government.