Chennai: Tamilnadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar today said about 700 fishermen from the State, who were stranded in Iran, would be repatriated by a ship and they would arrive in Tuticorin.
In a statement here, he said the fishermen from several districts of the State, who had been in Iran for fishing on contract basis, were stranded due to grounding of international flights in view of the coronavirus lockdown.
Stating that both the central and state governments had been taking steps to repatriate the stranded fishermen, Jayakumar said following a letter written by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami urging the Centre to take steps through the External Affairs Ministry to bring back the stranded fishermen in Iran, the Indian Embassy authorities in Iran met the fishermen, helped them with all facilities and medical tests.
Following this, a special ship would leave Iran today to repatriate 673 fishermen, who would reach Tuticorin, he said.
It was not known whether the fishermen would be brought by Indian Navy ship as part of Operation Samudra Sethu under the Vande Bharat Mission.