Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and ensure 11 Indian fishermen including ten from Kanyakumari in the state and one from neighbouring Kerala, who have been detained by the Kuwaiti police in a foisted case, were repatriated immediately.
Drawing the PM’s attention to the plight of the fishermen, she said, “I request you to direct the Ministry of External Affairs to instruct the Embassy of India in Kuwait to take all necessary measures to ensure the immediate repatriation of these innocent Indian fishermen.” In a letter to Mr Modi, a copy of which was released to the media here on Saturday, she said, necessary steps should also be taken to ensure that the fishermen received their just and due wages.
“I request immediate action in this matter as their families and dependants in India are anxious about the safety of these fishermen and are also suffering without any means of livelihood,” she added. The 11 fishermen, she said, went to Kuwait in July last year to work as fishermen under the sponsorship of one Hussain Rasheed and Mohamed Rasheed.
While the sponsors sent them for fishing for about six months in the boats owned by the sponsors, they did not pay the fishermen their share from the fishing catch as per the terms of employment. Hence, the fishermen struggled to barely sustain themselves and were unable to send money to their dependant families back at home.
As the 11 fishermen lost all hope of getting their just remuneration from their employers, they requested for their return passage to India, which the sponsors refused. Subsequently, they have been detained by the local police on a foisted case based on a complaint lodged by the Sponsors and released after a month’s detention. “It is reported that their passports are under the custody of the sponsors who are neither allowing them to work nor return to India,” she said and sought the Prime Minister’s immediate intervention for repatriation of the fishermen.
