Two Sri Lankan families reach Dhanushkodi seeking asylum

CHENNAI: Two Sri Lankan families, who left the island nation for asylum in India, reached Tamil Nadu's Dhanushkodi on Tuesday.

They were found at a sand dune by fishermen who alerted the Tamil Nadu coastal Police.

The coastal police in turn informed the Indian Coast Guard officials, who rescued the two families in a hovercraft from the sand dune. Eight people -- five women, two children and an adult male -- had reached the sand dune near Dhanushkodi from Sri Lanka.

There are 225 people from Sri Lanka who have reached the shores of Tamil Nadu ever since the island nation was gripped with an economic crisis.

The two families, on questioning by the marine police, said that they had paid Rs 1.45 lakh to an illegal ferry operator to reach Dhanushkodi.

The two families, according to the marine police, are from Dharmapuram near Killinochi in Sri Lanka.