Fishermen cut loose from toxic boss, got no help from Indian embassy

Mumbai police’s patrolling boat intercepted the trawler near Prongs Lighthouse, around 4 nautical miles from Gateway of India, on Tuesday. The police seized the boat and towed it to Gateway of India and apprehended the three -- Enfant Vijay Vinod Anthony, 29, Nidiso Deto, 31, and Sahya Anthony Anish, 29. The residents of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, were brought to the police station

MUMBAI The prospect of a good life lures many to the Middle East, but the despondency faced by a section of the working class is rarely chronicled. The three Tamil Nadu residents who cut away from an oppressive employer in Kuwait using his fishing trawler, landed on Mumbai’s coast and detained by Yellow Gate police on Tuesday, tells that dark story.

The trio travelled in the fishing trawler from Kuwait via Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Muscat, Oman and Pakistani territorial waters for nearly 10 days. The court has remanded them to three days police custody. (Bhushan Koyande/ HT Photo)

A metropolitan magistrate court on Wednesday said they had to resort to the sea route to return to the country, as their employer had stopped paying them and used to assault them. Both the local police and the Indian Embassy in Kuwait did not help them.

The trio travelled in the fishing trawler from Kuwait via Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Muscat, Oman and Pakistani territorial waters for nearly 10 days. The court has remanded them to three days police custody.

Mumbai police’s patrolling boat intercepted the trawler near Prongs Lighthouse, around 4 nautical miles from Gateway of India, on Tuesday. The police seized the boat and towed it to Gateway of India and apprehended the three -- Enfant Vijay Vinod Anthony, 29, Nidiso Deto, 31, and Sahya Anthony Anish, 29. The residents of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, were brought to the police station.

“As they arrived from a foreign country all agencies like Intelligence Bureau, Crime Branch and ATS questioned them along with us. They told they were working for one Abdulla Sharahid in Kuwait. The fishermen went to work for him through a placement agent two years ago, for better pay. However, the employer was neither paying them nor allowing them to return to India since a year,” said the police officer.

Advocate Sunil Pandey, who appeared on behalf of the trio, said they have been looking for ways to return to India since a year, but were trapped as the employer was not returning their visas and passports. “He was assaulting them -- Enfant was assaulted so badly that he had a leg injury and Nidiso had back injuries due to heavy work, apart from suffering from ulcers,” said Pandey.

Pandey asked the court how they can be booked for entering the country illegally as are from India and victims themselves; the cops have spoken to their families as well.

The police said after failing to make any headway with the Indian Embassy, they complained to the Kuwaiti police, but in vain. Finally, on January 26, they filled 6,000 liters of diesel in the boat, informed their employer that they were going to sea for fishing and set sail for India.

“They crossed territorial waters of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Muscat, Oman and Pakistan and reached Indian waters. They were optimistic about getting help in Mumbai after which they could reach their hometown in Tamil Nadu,” said a police officer. “They lived on bread, butter and jam during first seven days of their journey and starved through the remaining three days, after running out of food stock.”

The three are being questioned further, to rule out any terror angle as they have evaded several authorities and reached India by covering the distance of over 3,000 km. “They told us they were stopped at some points by Kuwaiti authorities where they said they were going for fishing and were allowed to go,” said the police officer.

“We are also trying to find out if they were part of any illegal acts in Kuwait and fled the country to evade the law. They travelled with the help of GPS device. We want to also speak to their relatives in India and will write to the local police in Tamil Nadu and Kuwait government via the Indian Embassy to reach their employer,” said the police officer.

The accused have been booked under sections 3 and 6 of the Indian Passport Act, 1967, for illegal entry into the country.

Their boat was checked by Mumbai police’s dog squad. No traces of drugs or anything suspicious have been found on the trawler. On the other hand, as the police are having trouble in questioning them as they can communicate only in broken English or Tamil, they have had to summon some hoteliers in Colaba to help with translations.

Help at hand

After reading about the plight of the three fishermen in HT, the South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF), based in Kanyakumari, has stepped in to help them.

John Churchill Bas, general secretary, SAFF, said: “After learning that they are from Kanyakumari district, I got in touch with the senior inspector of Colaba police who told me that they are in a lock up. We are ready to provide legal assistance and also pay for their travel back home. They are victims of harassment.”

He said that his organisation, which helps fishermen in distress, is trying to track down their relatives, and added that this was the third such case they came across in the last three years where fishermen have tried to free themselves from the shackles of their masters in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, when HT contacted the consul general of Kuwait in Mumbai, Al Kharaz, he declined to comment on the issue.

(Inputs by Yogesh Naik)