MADURAI: Five fishermen from Tamil Nadu and one from Kerala stranded in Iran, after they were abandoned by their employer and agent, are awaiting help from the central government to come back. The fishermen said they could not fly to India on August 12 as their employer cancelled their flight tickets at the last moment. They have been lodged in rooms since then and deprived of proper food and basic amenities.
Justin Antony, president of International Fishermen Development Trust, who is coordinating measures to bring them back, said they have written to the President and Prime Minister as well as external affairs ministry urging repatriation of the men. Their families are unable to bear the flight expenses costing 30,000 per head.
“On Sunday, Indian Embassy officials in Iran got the contact number of the fishermen and their employer. We hope the men are repatriated at the earliest,” the activist added. The fishermen — A Varghese, D Arumugam, A Ezhumalai, R Sathish and A Chelladurai from Tamil Nadu and Y Justin from Kerala were among a few who went to Iran to work as fishermen in March. Varghese said they had spent 1 lakh each to fly to the Gulf through agents.
“Though we were told that we will be employed in Dubai, it was only after we landed there that we were told we should work in Iran. We headed to Iran and started working, but there was trouble with our owner as the catch was less. A few weeks ago he asked us to return to India,” Sathish said.
