Chennai: The ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka has triggered fears among the local population and two families belonging to the ethnic Tamil race have fled the country and reached Tamil Nadu shores clandestinely on a boat in the wee hours of Tuesday. Six persons including a male infant aged four months old belonging to two families arrived on an illegal boat service and landed at Arichalmunai, the last point island of the Indian mainland in the south near Danushkodi in Rameswaram district in southern Tamil Nadu.
The six persons were detained by the Indian Coast Guard, who were on patrol and handed over the police.
The adults in the two families said they had fled Sri Lanka due to the spiralling cost of essential commodities and massive unemployment crisis in the hope that they would be taken care of their contacts in Tamil Nadu. Many Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who had arrived in India at the height of civil war in the Island nation, are staying in camps as well as outside here. The families, hailing from Jaffna and Talaimannar, said they had some such relatives in Tamil Nadu. They had left Sri Lanka by an illegal boat service at around 10 pm local time on Monday, crossed the International Maritime Border Line past midnight and reached Arichalmunai early Tuesday morning. The boatman left after dropping them off.
“I paid Rs 10,000 per head to the boatman. I am a casual labourer in Jaffna and lost my job. We do not have money to feed us as the prices of essentials has skyrocketed in Sri Lanka. I decided to come here as we have relatives in Rameswaram,” said Gajendran, one of those who arrived by boat. His wife Mary said those on the boat had not eaten since Monday noon.
The six persons have been booked under various provisions including the Indian Passports Act and are likely to be detained in a camp.
