Sixteen Indian sailors who got detained in Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria nine months back finally returned home on Saturday. The sailors faced accusations of oil theft by the Nigerian authorities there, they underwent trials and when finally a settlement was agreed upon, they were set free. They arrived at Kerala's Kochi airport where their families and Indian authorities welcomed them with garlands. The 'MT Heroic Idun' crew who were in detention since August 2022 got released with a warning as they were asked to conduct their maritime-related activities carefully, reported news agency ANI.
One of the sailors who returned to India, Sanu Jose, thanked the governments as he reached Kerala after "lots of uncertainty". While talking to ANI, Sanu Jose said, "I am very happy that I am now at home with my children. There was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen to our lives and we were told that our lives would end in Nigeria but I thank everyone including the government of India and Kerala government for helping us."
Another sailor named V Vijith praised the Government of India and said that they did a great job by getting each and every sailor released. While talking to ANI, Vijith said, "It was a difficult experience for us but the Government of India made a tremendous effort in this case and they did a great job of getting us released. The value of our passports played a tremendous role in our release. I would like to thank the Ministry of External Affairs and G. Balasubramanian, High Commissioner of India to Nigeria."
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The ship from which the sailors got detained had 26 crew members in total and 16 out of them were Indians. They were first detained in Equatorial Guinea in August 2022 and later they were moved to Nigeria in November 2022.