July 22, Colombo: Six Sri Lankan fishermen stranded at the port of Al Quseir on Egypt's Red Sea coast have returned home with the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The IOM in a statement said that “the group, who left Sri Lanka's west coast in March 2008, drifted into Egyptian waters when their boat developed technical problems. At Al Quseir they struggled without proper food and medicine, and had no means of getting home.”

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sri Lankan mission in Cairo then contacted IOM for help.

In Sri Lanka the fishermen were handed over to their families and an NGO - the Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen and Fishing Crafts - Sri Lanka, it added.