Chennai: The 49 fishermen released by Iran reached Chennai airport on Thursday morning. The Indian fishermen were arrested by the Iranian Coast Guard for crossing the international borders.
"At least 44 fishermen from Tamil Nadu and five fishermen from Gujarat and five fishermen from Dubai who worked for a Dubai fishing company, were on December 1, 2015 arrested by the Iranian Coast Guard because they had crossed the international border. For last 90 days these fishermen were detained in their fishing boats in a place called Dees in the sea at Iran," Father A.Churchill told.
"We have been taking a lot of initiatives for their rescue and release". We approached the government of Tamil Nadu and also the government of India and with the help of both the government these 54 fishermen have been released," he added.
"We were arrested and kept in jail for months. Now that we have been released, we feel happy for this. We thank both Centre and the state government for their efforts to get us out" Jegan Joseph, a fisherman told the media.
