The six Sri Lankan fishermen who were lost at sea in March when their boat had drifted to a small port in Egypt have now returned to the country and are already back in business, a spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
The group, who left Sri Lanka's west coast in March 2008, drifted into Egyptian waters when their boat developed technical problems and reached a small port on the Red Sea coast. They lacked proper food and medicine, and had no means of getting home.
The fishermen had left the shores of Sri Lanka from Negombo and set out to fish in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia, an area they were familiar with. Their boat had got caught in a storm and during that time their engine had failed and the boat’s anchor had been broken.
After the storm had subsided the fishermen had tried to turn back for home but failed to get the boat engine running.
They were drifting away in the sea for about a month, surviving on nothing but the meals they had packed for themselves when they left home.
Finally they saw land in the form of a small fishing port in Egypt where some local fishermen had offered them fuel. The stranded fishermen were suffering from influenza and had developed diarrhoea when they were discovered.
They had been taken to Al Quseir on Egypt’s Red Sea coast where they were checked by Border Control and the local police. They had then contacted their families and let them know that they were safe. Somebody had given them a mobile phone that could receive incoming calls in case their families wanted to contact them. Later some staff in the Sri Lankan Mission in Cairo had visited them.It was then that IOM Cairo and IOM Sri Lanka had approached them to help them get back home.
In coordination with the Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lankan Mission in Cairo the IOM helped the six fishermen to get back home. |
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