Thiruvananthapuram: Almost 900 fishermen are trapped in Iran after an unprecedented surge in the number of new coronavirus cases forced the authorities there to enforce movement restrictions in the country, a video which surfaced online on Monday revealed.
The information on the stranded Indians was obtained from two videos sent by a few Kanyakumari natives to their relatives.
“Around 340 of us are stranded on this island. Adding another 600 people trapped on the mainland, this exceeds 900,” an unidentified man says in the video.
“The rations are running out. We are not sure how we'll feed ourselves tomorrow,” he says.
“Our sponsors informed us that we cannot leave this place for another 3-4 months. When we questioned this, they threatened to hand us over to the police,” he said.
The sponsors also reportedly threatened that the Indian government will not support them and hence they are doomed to die there.
In the second video, the fishermen request the Indian Prime Minister and President to arrange a special flight to bring them back.
In another video that surfaced recently, 17 Keralite fishermen were seen among a group of fishers confined to a room in Iran.
These fishermen hail from Vizhinjam, Poovar and Pozhiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram district.
“We are unable to even go out of our room as that’s the rule here. We are even unable to contact our people who are holed up in other fishing villages. We are waiting to get help from our country, so we can return to be with our families,” a fishermen said in the video.
Iran is at the epicentre of the outbreak in the region, with several countries in the Middle East reporting cases of the coronavirus stemming from Iran.
The fishermen reportedly left for Iran four months ago.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on Sunday appealed to the External Affairs Minister to take necessary steps and arrange for safe return of hundreds of fishermen, including Keralites, trapped in Iran following coronavirus scare.
In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, he said the state government has received information that more than hundred people, including around 60 from Kerala, were trapped in Azalur in Iran.
"The number of those trapped in Azalur is around hundred, out of which around 60 are reported to be from Kerala," Pinarayi said in the letter.
"I request you to direct the (Indian) Embassy officials (in Iran) to take necessary steps and arrange for their safe return,” he wrote.
Iran on Monday raised its coronavirus death toll to 66 -- the highest outside China -- with 1,501 confirmed cases.
Gulf states have announced a raft of measures to cut links with Iran to curb the spread of the virus, cutting off transport links and telling citizens not to visit.
Some 129 cases have been confirmed across the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, many of them pilgrims returning from Iran.
The World Health Organization on Monday sent its first planeload of assistance to Iran to help fight coronavirus, dispatching six medics with tonnes of medical equipment and test kits aboard a UAE military aircraft.
COVID-19 which has spread to 60 countries across the world from China's Hubei province has killed almost 3000 people so far.
