Help return of fishermen from Saudi, appeal families

Madurai

The grief-stricken families of four Kanniyakumari fishermen, who have been detained in Saudi Arabia, have sought the intervention of authorities to help in securing the release of the fishermen and their safe return to the country.

Stressing this demand, the members of aggrieved families approached the Collectorate in Nagercoil on Monday.

Fr. Churchill, general secretary, South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF), who accompanied the families, said, the four fishermen, S Arockia Vijayan (33) of Muttom Kanniyakumari, S Vivek (27), S Smylin (34) of Melmidalam and Chezhiyan of Ramanathapuram district, went to work in Saudi Arabia sometime back. On October 2, when they were fishing in a mechanised boat in Saudi Arabian waters, a group of unidentified Iranian sea pirates opened fire at them and all the four suffered injuries. The injured fishermen were admitted to a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Smylin, one of the victims, suffered an injury to his eye. Though he was discharged from the hospital on October 6, the injury did not heal. As the four fishermen need immediate treatment, they should be brought back home safe, the family members demanded.

It seemed that the fishermen were compelled by the Saudi Arabia officials to accept that they were shot along the border of Iran. However, the fishermen were firm in their stand that they did not cross the border as they were sailing 20 nautical miles inside the Saudi Arabian waters. They were also confident of proving their claim with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) in the boat.

Much to agony, the fishermen were bullied by the authorities of Saudi Arabia as they were neither allowed to engage in fishing nor allowed to return to India. They worked for almost six months, but have not received salaries so far, the families said.

Citing these issues, the general secretary of SAFF, demanded the central government to pressure the Saudi Arabia government to free the four fishermen and also insisted to depute special officers to Indian embassies in Gulf countries to ensure that human rights of such fishermen were not violated by such employers.

The family members also submitted a petition containing their demands to Kanniyakumari Collector Prashant M Wadnere, he said.