Three, including a boy, from Sri Lanka reach Dhanushkodi islet on fibre boat, sent to Mandapam Rehabilitation Centre

Sri Lankan family reaches Dhanushkodi islet seeking refuge due to economic crisis, taken to Mandapam Rehabilitation Centre.

Three persons, including an eight-year-old boy, from Sri Lanka reached the Dhanushkodi islet in the early hours of Monday. On information, the marine police brought them to the shore and conducted inquiries.

A senior police officer said the three identified themselves as Sivaneshwaran, 49, Gajendran, 45, and his son Sajith, 8. They said they were residents of Mattakkalappu (Batticaloa).It is said they hired a fibre boat from a point on the Thalaimannar beach and reached somewhere near the Dhanushkodi islet.

They said poverty and joblessness, brought on the economic crisis, forced them to leave the island nation, the police officer said, adding that after due verification, they were sent to the Mandapam Rehabilitation Centre.

An officer at the rehabilitation centre said that with the entry of the three persons, the number of occupants at the centre rose up to 301. The Tamil Nadu government has provided shelter to those who left Sri Lanka and reached Indian waters in the last two years after the economic crisis started. The State government has been providing the inmates with food and a stipend.

As there has been no word from the Union government on the status of these people, the State has been helping them on humanitarian grounds, the officer added.