In total this month about 118 fishermen have been released by Eritrea.
Source: Arab News
Fishermen prepare to go to sea, Hodeida, Yemen, Sept. 29, 2018. (AP Photo)
SAEED AL-BATATI
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AL-MUKALLA: Thirty-eight Yemeni fishermen freed by Eritrea returned home on Wednesday, the final set of Yemeni detainees to be released from the East African country.
Yemeni authorities and fishing organization leaders said the 38 men returned after spending more than two months in an Eritrean prison.
A group of 54 Yemeni fishermen imprisoned in Eritrea for a year arrived in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeidah on Sunday, days after another group of 29 fishermen returned from incarceration in the Horn of Africa. In total this month about 118 fishermen have been released by Eritrea.
“After the arrival of 38 fishermen to Yemen, Eritrea has freed all Yemeni fishermen,” a colleague from the Red Sea town of Mokha, who met the returning detainees, told Arab News.
He added his compatriots had arrived hungry, weak, and without money.
“They are malnourished and come home with only the clothes they are wearing. In Eritrea, they were forced to hard labor from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. They labored on roads and transported boulders from mountains without adequate food,” said the fisherman, who asked to remain anonymous.
Yemeni fishermen associations say that the ambassador to Eritrea and local merchants with operations in the country were engaged in negotiations that resulted in the release of all incarcerated fishermen in Eritrea.
Martin Plaut 