Two Sri Lankan families reach Dhanushkodi and seek asylum
Two Sri Lankan families, five women, two children and an adult male, reached Tamil Nadu’s Dhanushkodi and sought asylum.
The ANI news service said the Sri Lankans were found on a sand dune by fishermen who alerted the Tamil Nadu coastal Police.
The coastal police in turn informed the Indian Coast Guard officials, who rescued the two families in a hovercraft from the sand dune.
Eight people — five women, two children and an adult male — had reached the sand dune near Dhanushkodi from Sri Lanka.
There are 225 people from Sri Lanka who have reached the shores of Tamil Nadu ever since the island nation was gripped with an economic crisis.
The two families, on questioning by the marine police, said that they had paid Indian Rs 1.45 lakh to an illegal ferry operator to reach Dhanushkodi.
The two families, according to the marine police, are from Dharmapuram near Killinochi in Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)
