MOGADISHU ( Halbeeg News) – Somali government has approved the departure of the Thai crewmen and were facilitating their return to Thailand.
According to Bangkok Post, Thai Foreign Ministry flight has been booked for this week to bring home a Thai fishing crew abandoned on a vessel in the sea off Somalia in Puntland state.
Busadee Santipitaks, the spokesperson of the ministry, said Somali authorities responded positively to the request for help from the Thai embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
A flight had been booked and they should arrive back in Thailand this week, Ms. Busadee said.
The plight of the 50 fishing crew members made headlines after one of them made a video call recently to a friend back home.
The fishermen were working on a vessel fetching fish in the Somali waters.
According to officials the fishermen were not paid and were abandoned aboard a fishing boat, Wadani 1, off the Bosaso coast of Somalia, and were running out of food and drinking water.
The Somali government has recently issued licenses to foreign fishing vessels in Somali territories.
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