KOCHI: The State Home Department is in a fix over the deportation of a foreign national, rescued by the Navy from Somali pirates, after he turned out to be a citizen of no nations. Aung Soe, a 29-year-old fisherman, believed to be a Thai national when rescued, has been confined within the four walls of Ernakulam Harbour Police station for the past nine months. Being alone in a country without knowing the language, it is like being in a no-man’s land, says Soe. Rescued from the Somalian pirates, while he was on board Prantalay 12, a Thai fishing trawler, Soe was taken to Harbour police station by the Naval personnel on December 8, 2010. “During fishing we came close to Somali pirates in April last year. Prantalay was under their control from then and we travelled a lot. We went up to Sri Lanka. “Last December, I was rescued by the Navy. Since then, I’m here,” said Soe in broken English. He was rescued by the Navy, off Kalpeni island of the Lakshadweep.He feels an innate urge to be among his own people at times, says Soe. “I wish to go back; to be among my people in Thailand - to where I ran away in 1991 from Burma, after the Burmese Army killed my parents and siblings in 1985. I don’t have a passport or other documents as I was not given Thai citizenship. I used to go to the police station once in seven days,” Soe says. His issue has come up before the authorities many a time, but even they are helpless. Though the officials from the Human Rights Commission and other authorities visited the station to assess the situation, no solution has been made till now. It is the absence of citizenship that makes his deportation a difficult task for the Home Department. “We have been in the process of deporting him to whichever country he belongs to. So far nothing has materialised,” said Kochi Police Commissioner M R Ajith Kumar. Since he migrated to Thailand at the age of four, he does not have any document to prove his nationality. Back home also, he does not have anyone to claim him. Till recently Soe was sitting inside the police station, sometimes a bit depressed. Now, he has started going out. Yet it is evident that he misses his own people. Signing off, he asks, “Sir, Can I ever go back?”
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