Fishermen stranded at sea off Somalia returning to Thailand

PHOTO: mcot.com

Some of the Thai fishermen, that have been stranded on two foreign fishing trawlers off the coast of Somalia over the past two weeks, have now returned to Thailand. The rest are expected arrive in the next few days, thanks to work by the Labour and Foreign Affairs ministries.

Thai Labour Minister Chatumongol Sonakul and Chatree Athananan, director-general of the Consular Affairs Department, report that Thai officials managed to contact only 42 out of the reported 50 Thai fishermen. Of these, four, who are all residents of the northeast province of Surin, returned to Thailand a week ago.

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For the remaining 18 off the same boat, flights back from Africa have already been booked for them, with 14 of them flying back via Dubai and the remaining four expected to arrive in Bangkok on Sunday.

The labour minister says the group of fishermen includes six from Surin province, eight from Buri Ram, two from Phetchabun and one each from Samut Sakhon and Chaiyaphum. Of these, five of them went abroad to work with the help of the government fund assisting job seekers to find work overseas.

The other 20 Thai fishermen, who were on another vessel, are on their way to Thailand via Oman and Iran.

Mr. Chatree gave his assurance that all the fishermen will be brought back to Thailand safely, no matter how long it takes, adding that all of them have been provided with food and some telephone expenses so they can call their families in Thailand.

SOURCE: Thai PBS