Fishermen rescued from Somali pirates return home

The 06 fishermen who went fishing in the international sea on the ”Lorenzo Putha- 4″ multi-day vessel and kidnapped by Somali pirates then rescued by the Seychelles Coast Guard arrived in Sri Lanka on the 23rd of June evening from Dikowita port.  The fishermen thanked everyone who saved their lives and the Vessel from the pirates. The owner of the Vessel who faced huge losses and the family members of the fishermen expressed their happiness over the ‘fishermen returned home safely’.

“I am the skipper of the vessel. That day we were kidnapped by Somali pirates. God saved me, and the other five who went to work with me, and the Vessel safely. The Seychelles Coast Guard came to our aid. Thank you to the Navy and everyone at the Victoria Port. Also, we would like to thank everyone including the officials of the Ministry of Fisheries of Sri Lanka who helped bring us back to Sri Lanka” told Mojo News Rakhitha Dushan, the skipper of the vessel.

“We suffered a lot for four and a half months. We didn’t have money to send to our family because we didn’t have a job. We cannot eat the food they gave us. Later we worked hard to find even a small amount like 100-200 rupees. I am unable to do heavy work with my back pain, but I had to work hard to find something. I will see my newborn baby for the first time today. So, all of us are happy that the vessel was saved and came to Sri Lanka safely”. Rakitha said.

On the 12th of January, the Lorenzo Putha 4 vessel, which made its maiden voyage to international waters, was attacked and captured by Somali pirates on January 27th, and on January 29th, the Seychelles Coast Guard and the Navy rescued the 6 fishermen safely and brought them to Victoria Harbor.

As the owner of the vessel, Francis Milroy stated, it has been a very difficult period to get back to Sri Lanka from there, and have had to deal with a lot of complicated work in the last few months.

He said that the release of the vessel and the fishermen, who did not face such a situation due to the fault or the wrongdoing of the fishermen or the vessel and returned to Sri Lanka was a diplomatic transaction and unexpectedly took a very long time.

Francis Milroy who stated that he had to do a lot of work to bring about this moment, said that in this unfortunate incident, he suffered a very big unbearable loss.

Milroy, who is the owner of three vessels, supports a number of fishing families from those vessels and also provides a lot of income to the government,  stated that neither the Ministry of Fisheries nor the government provided any relief to him or the fishermen at this time of his distress.

“My vessels and fishermen met this unfortunate fate because of the Somali pirates when they were working under the law with the relevant permission.”

“I have to pay a loan of 06 lakhs per month for this vessel. So far, there has been a loss of around one crore rupees. “I have to settle all this,” Milroy said.

“Today is a day we have been looking forward to. After many months, we met our husbands and brothers again. We have been facing financial problems for the past few months. Our people also suffered there. But somehow they were able to return”, Told Mojo News Iresha Maduwanthi, the wife of one of the fishermen who came to Sri Lanka.

“First of all, I thank God for saving the lives of these people. Likewise, we thank all the officials who rescued these people in Seychelles and all those who helped in Sri Lanka. There were people who helped us even by a word during our difficult period” Iresha further stated.

Tharushi Akarsha, a little daughter told Mojo News that she was very happy about her father’s arrival and said, “Thank you very much all, for bringing our fathers here.”

Speaking to Mojo News Priyantha Kumara Fernando as well as Avishka Kaushalya, Fishermen of the Lorenzo Putha 4, said that they are very grateful for being caught by pirates and returning safely to their families. They said that they are very thankful to the Seychelles officials who rescued them and to all the officials of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Navy of Sri Lanka to help them return to Sri Lanka.

“We did small – small jobs at that port for a short period, since our children were waiting, we brought some food and toffees, chocolate for the children with the money we collected,” said Priyantha Kumara.

END.