Eight Sri Lankan refugees reach Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, July 15 (IANS) Eight refugees, including five children, from Sri Lanka reached the Indian coast at Tamil Nadu's Dhanushkodi in the early hours of Saturday.

Sources in the Dhanushkodi coastal police told IANS that the refugees from Jaffna in Sri Lanka have been shifted to rehabilitation camp for refugees. 

With the arrival of eight more people, the number of refugees who reached Indian shores since the economic crisis in Sri Lanka has touched 265.

Notably, several people have earlier reached Indian coasts by paying huge money to illegal ferry agents who used to drop them near the Dhanushkodi coast.

Generally, the refugees who reach the Indian coast illegally are arrested and produced before a judicial magistrate court and remanded in judicial custody.

However, in the case of Sri Lankan refugees, the state government has not pressed for registering any criminal case against them.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the refugees reaching the Indian shores in Dhanushkodi and Rameswaram.