Chennai: An Indian merchant ship, Maharshi Vamadeva, a gas carrier, has been held in the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by the port authorities since June this year over non-payment of dues by the ship’s owner.
The all-Indian crew, 25 of them, have been stranded in the ship for three months now with their documents confiscated by local coast guard.
The ship crew and the family members have written mails to various authorities including the Directorate General of Shipping, the Indian embassy in UAE and External Affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj.
The owners of the ship, Varun Global, haven’t responded despite several exchanges and have left the sailors stranded, claim crewmembers. Following this, all 25 of them gathered on the ship’s deck and held placards with signs reading, “please arrest habitual offender Varun ships,” “please save us” in the hope that it would reach the authorities.
“The owners and managers have consistently chosen to ignore our pleas for help and assistance. We are currently in a state of emergency and request your urgent intervention to repatriate us to India, as nobody wants to continue,” said a mail sent by the ship crew to the authorities.
Adding to the agony of the crewmembers, they have not been paid salaries for three months and their living conditions have become deplorable. “We are critically short of provisions and are continuing on rationing by collecting AC drain water to bath and wash clothes,” said ship’s Chief Engineer Sumantra Nath Bhaduri.
“Our three months salaries are pending and no cash onboard to even buy our essentials or communicate with our families and our families at home are suffering without money even for their domestic needs,” one of the sailors on board told Deccan Chronicle.
When DC contacted Elegant Marine services, the ship manning firm that hired the sailors, the official played down the seriousness of the issue. “The crew are on board the ship. It is not a big issue. We are in talks with the ship owners and the issue would be settled in a few days,” Venkatesh, a HR personnel from the Chennai office told over phone.
According to industry insiders, Varun Shipping has been a repeat offender over the past five years relating to crew abandonment issues with the company’s ships detained at several ports.
