CHENNAI: After feeling ignored by their country and fearing getting infected with coronavirus, Indian fishermen stranded in Kish Island in Hormozgan Province in Iran, finally had reason to cheer. Food supplies were provided by the Indian embassy in Tehran on Friday morning. This comes after Express highlighted their plight of living on dwindling supplies and being ignored by the Indian embassy in Iran and Consulate in Bander Abbas. Iran has more than 18,000 persons infected by coronavirus.
Captain Johnson Charles, secretary for Meenavar Orunganaipu Sangam, in Kanyakumari, said while the supplies were sent through a driver, none of the officials met the fishermen. The supplies would last them only for a week, he said, adding that the embassy should provide the stranded fishermen with medicines also. Ramesh, a fisherman from Ramanthurai in Kanyakumari district, told Express from Kish Island that the supplies arrived in the morning. “We thank the Indian embassy in Iran, the Union and state governments for helping us with necessary supplies,” he said, while urging the government to make arrangements soon to bring them back home.
”There has been a rise in coronavirus cases on the Island, a tourist spot in Iran. We are scared and living in our boats,” he said. Johnson said discussions are on for the fishermen to sail home.”We have requested that the fishermen be brought back by ship from Bander Abbas port since the nearest airport is 1,000km away and Iran is under lockdown.”From Bande Abbas, it will take seven days to sail to Cochin airport or less if the fishermen are taken to Kandla where they can undergo quarantine.”Fishermen also said that there is no harassment from the boat-owners. A few days ago, some of the fishermen were threatened arrest as boat-owners pressurised them to go fishing. The 783 fishermen had sent in a SoS to the embassy to rescue them.