The 9 men voyaged 3,000km over 10 days in a stolen boat, which was boarded by Coast Guard personnel about 139k... Read More

KOCHI/MADURAI: When their feet touched land in Kochi on Friday, nine Indian men fell to their knees and kissed the ground while the Coast Guard personnel who had brought them in watched.

They had made it. Just about - with 500 litres of fuel left, half a bag of onions, plenty of luck, and a forgiving sea.

The two fishermen from Kerala and seven from Tamil Nadu had pulled off an epic escape from Yemen, stealing their master's boat after a year of alleged mistreatment and pittance for pay and voyaging 10 days over 3,000 km of open, and sometimes rough, sea in a vessel rigged for fishing, not crossing an ocean.

The boat Al Thiraya 3 , boarded by armed personnel of the Indian Coast Guard about 75 nautical miles (138.9 km) off the Kochi coast, reached the Indian shore around 1.15 pm and is berthed at the customs jetty in Kochi. They had been spotted by a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft the day before near Kalpeni atoll, about 117 nautical miles (218 km) west of Kochi port .

A ship, ICGS Aryaman, had been dispatched to investigate.

The fishermen had left Thiruvananthapuram on December 13, 2018 in search of the proverbial "far green shore" but were betrayed by their Yemeni employer who exploited them for over 10 months, forced them to live on the boats and paid them next to nothing.

Police said the fishermen would spend the night in the office rooms at the coastal police station complex and would be taken for immigration formalities once their relatives arrived on Saturday. "They talked to their families on the phone and had dinner. We have information that the relatives will arrive in Kochi tomorrow. If there are no other complications, they will be sent with them tomorrow," said a coastal police officer.

The nine men, who planned their escape meticulously, had stocked up on fuel and food. They left a fishing harbour near Ash Shihr in Yemen on November 19. They couldn't believe their luck when they made it to Kochi close to noon on Friday.

"We were taken to the Gulf and promised jobs in Oman by a sponsor we knew from our earlier fishing jobs. But we ended up in Yemen. Five of us left Thiruvananthapuram on December 13, 2018 and were taken to Sharjah. We stayed on a boat in Ajman for over a month before being taken to Yemen under the pretence of being taken to Oman. The others came to Yemen via road after reaching Salalah," said Sahaya Ravikumar, one of the fishermen, who belongs to Tirunelvelli district in Tamil Nadu, told officials in a detailed statement.

The fishermen from Tamil Nadu are J Vinston (47), S Albert Newton (35), A Eskalin (29), P Amal Vivek (33), J Shajan (24) and S Sahaya Jagan (28) of Kanyakumari district and P Sahaya Ravi Kumar of Tirunelveli district. The two men from Kerala are Noushad (41) and Nizar (44), both from Kollam.

The families of the fishermen were unaware of the escape bid till Albert Newton called his wife, Sabitha (34), at 5.30 am last Wednesday to say that he and eight others were near Lakshadweep en route to Kochi. Twenty-five-year-old Sahaya Nidhiya, wife of Amal Vivek from Kanyakumari, said she got a call from her husband on November 19 - the day they had escaped from Yemen. "He told me that he is going fishing and will call me later," she said. "We are happy that they are safe in India now." Nidhiya and her four-year-old son are longing to see Vivek; it's been almost a year since they last met.

According to the fishermen, their only aim was to make some money to provide for their families but Yemen turned into a nightmare. Their escape was by no means smooth - they often encountered choppy seas and rough weather. "On our journey to Kochi the sea near Somalia was so rough that we used up too much fuel manoeuvring the boat through currents that were pulling us towards land. To make up for this we maintained a limited speed to save fuel," Vivek said. "The catch in Yemen was so good that we never had to venture into deep seas. This came as a boon and we could save on fuel," he added.

A Coast Guard officer who boarded Al Thiriya near Lakshwadeep told TOI that all the fishermen had passports. "They were determined to return and had planned their journey meticulously. They had about 7,000 litres of fuel to make it to India but when we found them near Lakshadweep they had hardly 500 litres left. There were a few mobile phones with them but the Thuraya navigational equipment which they had was kept switched off," he said.

By the time they were spotted by the Coast Guard, the fishermen were dangerously low on food and drinking water as well. All they had was half a bag of onions and a few meagre provisions despite rationing their food by sometimes eating just once a day.

"Right now, we don't see anything wrong about their profiles. They all have Indian passports and there is exit-entry on it. A background check will be done to learn about their antecedents," said an immigration official. Customs officials confirmed there was no contraband or catch on board the boat.

The fishermen were interrogated by various agencies - the Intelligence Bureau, state intelligence, immigration officials, customs, local special branch, Coast Guard, costal police and local police officials - till late into Friday evening. The boat will be presented in court and legal advice will be sought on how to handle the issue since the fishermen arrived in a foreign vessel.

Kevin, 39, wife of Vinston, 47, is among the kin of the seven fishermen from Tamil Nadu getting ready to go to Kochi with the relevant documents. "We request the government not to harass them and safely bring them home. They have suffered enough physically and mentally, with no wages and proper food for a year. Even our enemies should not suffer like this," a tearful Kevin said.

