250-day long wait ends, 10 Indian fishermen held in Myanmar to be repatriated by Friday

Chennai: The Ministry of External Affairs has said that 10 fishermen who were captured by Myanmar Coast Guard earlier this year, would be repatriated by Friday.

Indian fishing boat ‘Subha Tree Sea Food’ and its 10 crew were captured from Diglipur, North and Middle sea area on April 11, 2021. The Indian government had formally requested the Myanmar counterpart to grant amnesty to the fishermen on humanitarian grounds.

The fishermen are expected to board an Air India flight from Yangon to New Delhi on Thursday, after undergoing COVID-19 tests. Five of the fishermen belong to Tamil Nadu, three to Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the remaining are from West Bengal.

Recently, the Tamil Nadu-based South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF) had written to the human rights authorities seeking help in getting the fishermen released. According to SAFF, the trawler with the ten fishermen sailed from Junglisghat Fish landing centre on April 4 and headed for fishing in Diglipur (North Andaman sea), when they were arrested by the Myanmar Coast Guard for alleged trespass into their waters.

In their request to the authorities, the SAFF had said that the fishermen were the lone breadwinners of their families and that their captured boat was their lone source of income. Following these requests from a consortium of fishermen associations, the authorities moved to secure the release of the captured fishermen.