49 Indian fishermen languish in Iran port

Chennai: Will we be bailed out alive’, is the lone thought lingering in the psyche of 49 Indian fishermen stranded in an Iranian Port for more than two months.
While some of them had fallen sick, hunger and thirst have made the fisherfolk to yearn for their rescue. Drinking water supply had also been stopped and  they are left with only option of drinking sea water.

The fisherfolk from Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Gujarat, were detained with five long liners from Dubai after they accidentally drifted into the territorial waters of Iran, on December 1, last.

Since then, they were being held in the long liners and were fending off on  supplies for credit for about a month. The supply stopped on instructions from the owners of the long liners. Water supply was also stopped.

The Iranian Coast Guard which has the custody of the liners with its crew reportedly do not allow the crew to enter the port to collect even drinking water.

“They are at the mercy of other friends from here working in Iran even to charge the phone. They cannot randomly make calls as they used to when they were at work. They have to wait for their turn since most of their mobiles had run out of battery”, said Delvin Helena, wife of a crew member Rubin, (35), of Muttam.

Mary Helen, wife of another crew member – Benjamin, (42), who echoed Delvin Helena, also noted that her husband went only for the third fishing sortie when he was apprehended.

National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM) coordinator Valarmathi, pinned her hopes on the Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, for rescuing the stranded fishermen. “We have already petitioned the CM in this regard” she said.

Antony Hubert, activist from Muttam in Kanyakumari, said the families here were struggling to make ends meet as their breadwinners were stranded in Iran.