Internationally-recognised IDs for fishing boat pilots

COLOMBO: Pilots of multi-day fishing boats and their assistants will be issued internationally recognised identity cards in seven languages, including Sinhala, Tamil, English, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali and Diwehi under a Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department programme.

This will ensure the fishermen's safety when they are stranded in deep seas due to engine failures and natural calamities or rounded by foreign Navies coast guard officers of foreign countries when they stray into foreign territorial waters, the Department's Director General G. Piyasena said.