John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Dec 03: Ten fishermen, including four from A & N Islands, who were arrested by Myanmar Coast Guard on 10th April 2021, finally reached New Delhi from Yangon, Myanmar yesterday afternoon in an Air India flight.
But their nightmares were far from over even after reaching India as they found themselves stranded at New Delhi Airport, without warm clothes or money, as no one from the Ministry or Andaman and Nicobar Administration reached to receive them.
As the mobile phones and other belongings of these fishermen were taken away on the day of their arrest, these fishermen were unable to call anyone for help.
Out of these 10 fishermen, four fishermen are from Tamil Nadu, two are from West Bengal and four are from A & N Islands. The Andaman fishermen are Mr. S. Kumar from Junglighat, Mr. G Raja from Chakkargaon, Mr. Jai Seelan from Chakkargaon and Mr. Ajith Kumar Azhagar from Port Blair.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha over phone, one of the fishermen today said that they reached New Delhi Airport at around 2.00 PM yesterday but there was no one at the Airport to receive them and it was too cold outside and hence they waited inside the airport.
Later staffs of immigration came forwarde to help them. The immigration staffs permitted them to stay inside the airport for the night and provided them dinner. Later when the owner of the vessel “Subha Sree Sea Food”, in Andaman, arranged their accommodation in Andaman Bhawan, New Delhi, the immigration staffs provided money for transportation of the fishermen from Airport to Andaman Bhawan today morning.
While by evening Tamil Nadu Government arranged flights for four fishermen of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Government arranged flights for two fishermen for 04 December 2021 morning, four fishermen from Andaman are still not sure, when they will reach Port Blair and who will arrange flight tickets for them.
The Andaman and Nicobar Administration has till now done a wonderful job by taking up this matter in top priority with the concerned ministry, which has now resulted in this repatriation. Hopefully the Administration will also do the needful to bring the four fishermen back to Port Blair by special arrangement.
