RAMANATHAPURAM: As Sri Lanka reels under its worst economic crisis, 19 more Lankan Tamils, six of them children, arrived in Dhanushkodi in two batches on Sunday. With this, the number of Tamils from the island nation, who have sought refuge in Tamil Nadu due to the crisis, has reached 39.
The first batch of 10 Lankan Tamils, including three women and four children, was rescued by Marine Police and the Coast Guard from a sandbar off Dhanushkodi in the wee hours of Sunday. The police said the group, hailing from Trincomalee in SL, left Mannar on a fibreglass boat on Saturday night.
They were dropped off on a sandbar, where they waited for hours in the dark till they were rescued. The second batch of nine Lankan Tamils, including three women and two children, travelled from Jaffna to Dhanushkodi by fibreglass boat and were spotted walking from the beach to the road on Sunday morning. They were taken to the police station for an inquiry.
All of them were shifted to the Mandapam refugee camp. Sources said the migrants cited the economic crisis in SL as the reason for seeking refuge in India.