Stranded fishermen return home from Egypt

Six Sri Lankan fishermen stranded at the port of Al Quseir on Egypt’s Red Sea coast have been helped to return home to Sri Lanka by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The group, who left Sri Lanka’s West coast in March, drifted into Egyptian waters when their boat developed technical problems. At Al Quseir they struggled without proper food and medicine, and had no means of getting home.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Sri Lankan mission in Cairo then contacted IOM for help.IOM provided medical screening for the group and then arranged their return home by air, using its “Humanitarian Assistance to Stranded Migrants’’ fund.