Chennai: It was a reunion mixed with untold trauma and harassment, they underwent during the two and half year detention in United Arab Emirates.
Of the 23 Indian migrant fishermen detained as eyewitness in connection with the death of an Arab in 2013, 11 fishermen hailing from Kanyakumari returned to Tamil Nadu on Tuesday night. State administrators received the fishermen at Chennai airport here and comforted them.
According to National Domestic Workers Movement state coordinator. S. Valarmathi, all the 23 fishermen belonging to Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu went to the coastal waters of UAE (in 2014) for fishing, accompanied by two Arabs. One Arab went missing and all the Tamil fishermen were arrested. Later they were acquitted by the foreign court.
Stating that the fishermen were eyewitness in the case, they were detained with their passports confiscated, work permits cancelled and some of them found it difficult to make ends meets. The state and Centre should now help the fishermen as they are suffering huge debts due to the two-year unjustified detention period, Valarmathi added.
