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21 Indian Fishermen Released

21 Indian Fishermen Released
21 Indian Fishermen Released

A group of 21 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were stranded in Iran, have been released and will be repatriated in batches starting August 3, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said. “I am happy to inform that 21 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were stranded at Nakhitaghi (Iran) have been released with the efforts of Indian Embassy in Iran and our consulate at Bandar Abbas. We are repatriating them to Chennai in batches starting from August 3,” Swaraj tweeted on Tuesday, Indian newspaper The Tribune reported. The southern state of Tamil Nadu, from which the fishermen hail, appealed last month to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Indian Embassy in Iran to take steps to repatriate the fishermen stranded there. Fishermen drifting into territorial waters of other countries is a normal issue between neighboring countries and is often reported in the media. A vessel’s malfunction, bad weather or breakdown of satellite systems causes the fishermen to miss their direction. The usual approach is that the fishermen and their vessels are held by the relevant authorities until the issue is cleared by the respective diplomatic missions. There have been similar instance in the past but have been resolved in the context of friendly relations between the two countries.

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