News
Eight Sri Lankans reach Rameswaram by boat
15 Jul, 2023
Eight Sri Lankan nationals, who fled their country, clandestinely arrived at the seashore near Kothandaramar Temple near Dhanuskodi in Rameswaram island on Saturday morning. They included two women and five children, belonging to two families.
Police said they were found near Kothandaramar Temple in the early hours of Saturday. The two families had paid ?1.50 lakh each for the illegal ferrying.
Marine Police in Rameswaram picked them up for enquiry before handing them over to the administration of Sri Lankan Rehabilitation Centre at Mandapam.
The police said so far 266 Sri Lankan nationals had reached Rameswaram ever since the economic crisis started in the island nation.
One of the Sri Lankan nationals, G. Vijay Kumar of Jaffna, said his family had to flee Sri Lanka due to fear of children being abducted by unidentified persons. ?They were afraid of going to school. Besides, the prices of essential commodities had gone up so high,? he said.
While a kg of rice was priced at ?200, one litre of milk was sold at ?160, he added.
Vijay Kumar had already come to India as a refugee in the 1990s and returned to Sri Lanka in 2002. ?We want to go back if the economic crisis is over,? he added. (The Hindu)
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