14 Indian fishermen head home after being repatriated from Sri Lanka

NEW DELHI: Fourteen Indian fishermen detained in Sri Lanka have been repatriated and are on their way back, the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka said on Friday.

In a post on X, the Indian mission in Colombo said, “14 Indian fishermen were repatriated from Sri Lanka today and are on their way home.”

14 Indian fishermen were repatriated from Sri Lanka today and are on their way home.@IndianDiplomacy @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/ABrOquo8u4

— India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) March 13, 2026

Earlier, Sri Lankan MP Harsha de Silva said that the issue of Indian fishermen in Sri Lanka is a perennial issue and will not go away soon, because both sides depend on fishing for a living.

“This is a perennial issue, you know it’s not going away because I think on both sides of the straits, you know, folks are depending on fish for their living. These are not, you know, big corporates these are small fishermen, and when the Indian trawlers come, and you can see the satellite images, you know, they do not come in dozens but rather in hundreds, and they go back, so the issue, I think, is a complicated one. You can’t just say this is the line so you stay here, and you know somehow stay on this,” he said.

Silva then said that it is more of a legal issue than a political. “Yes, every foreign minister and deputy foreign minister worked on this. It is about bottom trawling and whether bottom trawling is a traditional fishing method, and you know, does it destroy the seabed? But as I said, I think the solution is economics-related, not legal,” he said.

On February 22, 12 fishermen along with one boat from Pamban were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy while fishing in the Gulf of Mannar between Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar. The Sri Lankan Navy seized a boat belonging to a fisherman identified as David from Pamban.

The incident triggered unrest among fishermen in Pamban, with more than a hundred boats from the Pamban South Wadi Fishing Port having ventured into the sea at the time of the apprehension.

The issue of frequent arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities has remained a longstanding concern between the two countries, particularly affecting fishing communities in Tamil Nadu. (ANI)