21 migrant fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Iran, reached the Chennai International airport in the early hours of Saturday after a one-month ordeal.
The group of fisherment, who reached the Chennai International airport around 3 a.m. from Doha by a Qatar Airways flight. belong to Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts, and were toiling in Iran after being cheated by their travel agents.
One of the fishermen, P. Kumar of Puthenthurai in Kanyakumari district, said, “ Officials of External Affairs Ministry, Chief minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and Commissionerate of Rehabilitation & Welfare of Non-resident Tamils office took effective steps to ensure their repatriation and migrant forum India conveys fishermen's and their families' heartfelt thanks to all the concerned for all their great efforts to bring the fishermen back home.”
He also reiterated his demand that the State Government should lend them a helping hand by providing financial assistance to help them lead a decent living.
According to representatives of the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) these migrant fishermen were cheated by the different agencies and were taken to Dubai on visit visa by getting Rs. 60,000 in cash from each fishermen in their village. The migrants were given tourist visa to Dubai and they reached on December 7, 2017, and stayed in Dubai till December 12, 2017, in their friend’s room. After which the unregistered agent had withheld money from their share amount from the sponsor stating reasons for residence card and for visa to be in Iran.
The migrant fishermen were not given proper salary till June 2018. The migrants were cheated by the agents and sponsor by exploiting huge amount of money. When the migrants approached the sponsor for salary they were given only a small paltry amount deducting for many reasons including boat repair, torn net, oil charges, accommodation, food, etc.
In the last six months the migrants have not received their salary properly and when asked for it the sponsor threw them out of their residence. The intervention of NDWM/Migrant Forum by registering complaints in June 2018 and mails to Union and State governments helped the fishermen to get attention.
