Fishermen threaten to seek asylum in Lanka

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamilnadu/fishermen-threaten-to-seek-asylum-in-lanka/242288.html

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on January 25, 2011:

CHENNAI: In a desperate step to save their lives, about 500 fishermen from the village of Pushpavanam near Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district have planned to seek asylum with the Sri Lankan government for their safety.

M Kathirvel, president of the village panchayat, told Express: “Since the state and Central governments miserably failed to protect us while fishing despite having the world class Navy and Coast Guard, we have decided to seek asylum with the neighbouring nation to save our lives.”

According to Kathirvel, in a week’s time, all these fishermen in 100-odd fibre boats (belonging to the villagers) would reach the Lankan maritime boundary to seek asylum with them.

Though the ‘hard decision’ seems to be taken after the tragic death of local fisherman N Jayakumar at the hands of Lankan Navy, it was primarily meant to put more pressure on the State and Centre to understand the ground reality faced by fishermen in the region, Kathirvel said.

“Since we don’t want to lead a life under constant fear of being killed or brutally attacked by Lankan Navy anytime while fishing in mid-sea, seeking asylum and continuing the fishing activities from the Lankan shores would only assure our food and more importantly the lives,” he added.

Seeking asylum with the country which constantly attacks Indian fishermen could only be attributed to the utter failure of the home country to provide security to them in sea, said S A Mahesh, president of All Indian Traditional Fishermen Association.

Mahesh further said that the Indian Government should wake up from deep slumber and act decisively to end the Lankan Navy’s unwarranted attacks on unarmed and innocent Tamil fishermen.