23 fishermen arrested by SL guards return to Chennai

CHENNAI: As many as 23 fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan coast guard returned to Chennai on Friday.

Tamil Nadu fishermen from Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam and Karaikal went fishing to the sea last month.

On July 3, while they were in the middle of the sea, the Srilankan coast guard squad surrounded the fishermen and arrested them for crossing the maritime border.

Later, they seized the boats and all of them were sent to prison by the Sri Lankan government.

After the incident, families of the fishermen requested the Tamil Nadu government to take steps to bring back the fishermen to India.

Following that, Chief Minister MK Stalin requested the Home Ministry to take immediate action. With the help of the Indian embassy in Srilanka, all the fishermen were released from prison on July 8.

All of them were asked to appear for Covid test and were told to be in quarantine for two weeks.

Later, the Indian embassy arranged tickets and emergency visas for the fishermen and they reached the Chennai airport from Colombo on Friday early morning on an Air India flight.

The officials from the Fisheries Department welcomed them at the Chennai airport and arranged transport facilities to reach home.