Chennai/Rameswaram: The ripples of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis are now being felt on Indian shores.

At least 16 Tamils from the island country reached Rameswaram clandestinely in a fibre boat on Tuesday. There are indications of more people leaving Lanka to reach Tamilnadu in the coming days.

The first set of six refugees, including three children, were stranded near an island off the coast of Rameswaram and rescued by Coast Guard. The second group of ten reached late in the night.

Sources said they were fleeing unemployment and shortage of food in Sri Lanka. And reports from the northern Tamil-dominated regions of Lanka indicate that this may just be the beginning. Intelligence officers in Tamilnadu have obtained information that ‘around 2,000 refugees’ are likely to arrive in the coming weeks.

One of the refugees said, ‘I am a casual worker in Jaffna. I lost my job recently. The prices of basic goods have touched a new high. I don’t have any money. I have some relatives in Rameswaram. Hence, I decided to come here.’

A woman said, ‘there is food scarcity among the working class. I wanted to work, but I cannot leave my two children alone. Hence, I decided to go to India.’

The refugees said that they were finding it difficult to get food in Sri Lanka.

A boatman dropped them on the fourth island off Arichalmunnai, which is under the control of the Indian Coast Guard. They said they had paid the boatman around Rs 50,000 for the journey. They said many people were waiting to sail to India in boats.

Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard, Mandapam, said in a press release that it received information about the arrival of the families from the Q Branch and launched a hovercraft in the region at 8.30 a.m. It identified six Sri Lankan nationals — one male, two females and three children (including an infant) — near the Fourth Island. They were brought to the Mandapam hoverport and interrogated.

In the meantime, the Centre has allocated Rs 80 crore in 2021-22 as relief assistance to the Sri Lankan Tamils living in camps in India and an amount of over Rs 78 crore has already been released, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra said the relief includes cash assistance, subsidised rice, free clothes, utensils, cremation grants and infrastructure facilities at the camps.