15 fishermen held in Iran return

They were arrested by Iran Navy last year on a poaching charge

Emotional scenes were witnessed as family members met the shermen released from Iran at Ramanathapuram Collectorate on Thursday.

Fifteen fishermen, who were detained in Kish island in Iran after its navy arrested them on a charge of poaching in its territorial waters in December 2016 and released last week, returned home to an emotional family reunion on Thursday.

Thirteen of them, who hailed from fishing hamlets in Rameswaram, Thondi and Kilakarai regions, were brought in a van in the evening after they landed at Anna International Airport, Chennai, in the early hours of Thursday.

Boarding separate flights at Sharjah International Airport, 13 fishermen landed in Chennai, and two in Tiruchi, M. Karunamurthy, district secretary of the CITU-affiliated Tamil Nadu Meenpidi Thozhirsanga Kootamaippu, who had been taking efforts to secure their release, said.

Emotional scenes were witnessed when the fishermen were dropped at their hamlets – Ramakrishnapuram, Pamban, Thondi, Atrangarai, Valangapuri, Thinaikulam and Kadayanvalasai – as the family members received them with tears of joy. Family members of five fishermen accompanied Mr. Karunamurthy to Chennai and received the released fishermen at the airport while others could not afford to bear the travel expenses. The fishermen had gone to Dubai on contract fishing and were arrested by Iran Navy when they were fishing on the high seas on December 27, 2016, Mr. Karunamurthy said. At Kish island, the fishermen were detained in their trawlers, confiscated by Iran Navy, and asked to take care of themselves, said N. Balamurugan, 29, who was arrested along with his brother N. Nambukumar.

Charge against Iran Navy

“The navy did not give us any food and we managed on our own after buying rations with little money given by the employer,” he told

The Hindu. Officials from the Indian Embassy, who had visited them twice, brought some medicines, but the Iran Navy did not hand over the medicines to them, said K. Kuppusamy, one of the arrested fishermen. In the absence of livelihood activities here, the fishermen were forced to fly out for contract fishing despite the risk involved, he said.

The fishermen would eke out a living here if the State government helped them with subsidised loans or financial assistance to buy country boats, Mr. Karunamurthy said.