Aggrieved families seek repatriation of stranded TN fishermen in Iran

MADURAI: The aggrieved families of fishermen, who are stuck in war-torn Iran, on Monday urged immediate intervention of government authorities to help bring them back as soon as possible. The fisher folks in the southern coastal districts felt that their breadwinners were living in fear of attack.

Due to the Iran-Israel conflict, the Indian fishermen who are involved in fishing in Iran are living in fear, and their anxious kin at home are tense.

Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly M Appavu, after taking part in a programme in Tirunelveli recently said Chief Minister MK Stalin intervened in the issue and initiated necessary steps to repatriate all those stranded in Iran.

Justin Antony, president, International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET), Kanniyakumari said on Monday said several cities including Bander Abbas, Kish Island, Assaluyeh and Chiruyeh in Iran, were mainly inhabited by thousands of Indian fishermen, especially from the southern districts of Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu. Almost a thousand fishermen from southern coastal districts were stranded in Iran during this war.

The INFIDET understands the urgency of the rescue mission that the Indian Embassy is working to bring back Indian students from Iran. Citing these, he requested the Union government to step up efforts on a war footing basis to rescue Tamil Nadu fishermen from Iran and bring them back to our homeland.

He then recalled the Centre's efforts in rescuing the Indian fishers from Iran during COVID–19.

Sources said sixteen fishermen, who belong to Amalinagar, a coastal hamlet near Tiruchendur of Thoothukudi district, and three fishers from Thangachimadam in Ramanathapuram district were also in Iran.