The Therkku Ezhuthalar Movement has appealed to the district administration to rescue 11 fishermen stranded in Kuwait for over a year here on Monday. Submitting a petition to Collector, Thiruthamizh Thevanar, State president of the movement, alleged that 10 fishermen from Kanniyakumari and one from neighbouring Thiruvananthapuram had ventured into the sea for fishing in two boats owned by Kuwait- based sponsors during May 2015. The fishermen had an agreement with the Kuwait-based sponsors to share the fish catch. However, they were cheated by the sponsors and treated as bonded labourers, he alleged. The frustrated fishermen appealed to their sponsors to make arrangement for their return to India. Angered over this, the sponsors took the signatures of the fishermen in white paper to cheat them, he said. Later the sponsors lodged a complaint with the police that the fishermen failed to return a small loan of Rs.4.25 lakh.
2016, The Hindu