An audio clip purportedly of an Indian embassy official in the Iranian capital of Tehran asking fishermen, including many from Tamil Nadu, stranded in that country to mobilize $100 each to return home by ship has stirred a controversy after it got widely circulated on social media. If you are serious about returning home you should have $100 US ready, the official is heard saying in the interaction with Tamil fishermen staying on Kish Island. This has left the desolate 700 fishermen from Tamil Nadu and their relatives here worried. The conversation took place on Tuesday when our mates Stalin and Vincent called the official. On Wednesday I spoke to another official in the embassy who reiterated the same. Arranging Rs 7,500 plus ($100 US) now is an uphill task as we have not been working for nearly three months, says Robinson, 34, of Kanyakumari who is working on Kish Island. The fishermen including those from Gujarat and Kerala have been pleading with the government to facilitate their return since February 22. Robinson told TOI that the embassy official told him that the money is the ferry charge for the ship that would take them to India. We don’t even have money for our food. We told the officials that we will try to arrange the money after we return home, but they said no’. My relatives are struggling to arrange the money, he said. The official told them that it could take about two weeks for the ship to arrive. He asked the fishermen to get their passports from their employers and prepare the exit visa. We told them that our employers are refusing to allow us to return and sought the embassy’s intervention in this regard. However, he said they cannot intervene and that we will be informed five days before the ship arrives, Robinson said. Robinson and another fisherman, Sahaya Ascar, working in Chiruyeh said the embassy had provided them raw materials to prepare food only once. We received supplies in the third week of March but they lasted a week. Since boat owners don’t provide us much, we have one or two meals a day, Ascar said. We don’t want to waste time in repatriating them by waiting for the government to waive the fare. But their relatives here feel that the embassy should permit them to deposit the money in an Indian account, said Meenavar Orunginaipu Sangam (MOS) secretary Charles Johnson.