Chennai: The Seychelles Coast Guard has detained 58 fishermen from India over the last one week on charges of violating their territorial waters. On Friday alone, 25 fishermen, including six from Kerala, were arrested by the Seychelles maritime wing.
The arrested fishermen belonged to two boats that had set out from Dathur in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, and Poonthura in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on Friday morning.
While the skippers of the boats were taken to prisons in Seychelles, the workers were held captive on the boats. The boats are owned by Soosainayakam and Antony.
Earlier, 33 fishermen on three boats that had sailed from Kochi on February 22 were imprisoned by Seychelles, an island country in the Indian Ocean off East Africa.
The Seychelles Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the Seychelles People's Defence Force.
Sri Lankan prisoners
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Navy had arrested eight fishermen from Tamil Nadu on charges of violating their jurisdiction last month. These fishermen were remained in judicial custody on Friday. The same day, India took five Sri Lankan fishermen for intruding into the country’s territorial waters.
