Family members of five fishermen made a plea to the Ramanathapuram Collector M. Sivaguru Prabhakaran here on Thursday, demanding the rescue of five fishermen who went for fishing work in Somalia and are currently stranded without food.

Muthuselvi, wife of Sundaram, 50, from Mullimunai near Thondi in Ramanathapuram district, Kalaichelvi, wife of Nagaselvam, 45, from Thiruppalaikudi; Sathya, wife of Kannan, 40, from Natarajapuram in Rameswaram; and Nadhiya, wife of Ramesh, 26, submitted a petition to the Collector urging the rescue of their husbands who are stranded in Somalia without food or wages.

They said, “In December last year, five persons—Sundaram, Nagaselvam, Kannan, Ramesh, and Kaleeswaran, from Morpannai—were taken to Somalia for contract fishing by a team from Thiruppalaikudi.

After reaching there, they engaged in deep-sea boat fishing for five months.

However, they were not paid wages for it. Following that, they were not provided work either.

“As a result, with no means even for food, they are doing other daily wage labour but still suffering without getting proper food. Veerapandiyan and Samaya Kannan, who took them there, have returned to their native place,” they added.

“Among them, it is said that Samaya Kannan has gone to Malaysia. When asked, Veerapandiyan says he will get the wage money for them. But he is cheating them. Action should be taken against him, and steps must be taken to rescue the fishermen suffering without food and bring them back to their native place,” the petitioners said.

The fishermen stranded in Somalia have sent a video recording to their families stating that they have no way to get food, are stranded in a life-threatening situation, and that they need to be saved, they appealed to the Collector.