RAMANATHAPURAM: Eighteen more Sri Lankan refugees including women and children reached Dhanushkodi in Ramanathapuram district on Friday fleeing their economic crisis-hit country.
They left the island nation on two fishing boats on Thursday night and reached here in the early hours of Friday. Police said 13 people from two families, including three men, as many women and seven children, sailed from Adamban Vannakulam in Mannar district spending ₹4 lakh to sail to India at 6.30 pm.
P Kasthuri, 29, who came with her husband M Pradeep, 30, and daughters P Susmitra, 4, and Sasmitra, 1, sold jewellery, her husband's bike and household articles to arrange money for the boat ride. "The situation now is worse than the civil war times as we had difficulty buying essentials to feed the children," she said. Pradeep was a policeman in Sri Lanka for eight years till 2021.
Nagulesawaran, 48, arrived with his family of nine including wife Eswari, 41, five children and pregnant daughter-in-law. Fighting tears, Eswari said they waited for days to buy LPG and hours to buy fuel and essential supplies.
