Human Rights at Sea highlighted that the remaining abandoned Indian seafarers are trying to negotiate their salaries, keeping in mind that their two vessels have been arrested, and most seafarers were in such a desperate situation that they accepted the company’s offer without further negotiation. The situation is still going, as the abandoned Indian seafarers off the UAE coast haven’t got any salary for 28 months now, because Marine Service LLC fails to pay their wages.
In general, HRAS has given a huge publicity on the matter of seafarers’s abandonment highlighting that “such poor management behaviours by maritime companies and owners towards their employees is entirely unacceptable in today’s society in a multi-billion $ industry.”
In addition, HRAS informs that the owner, Rashed Abdulla Al Falasi, keeps negotiating the remaining and outstanding salaries, despite the fact that the Dubai-based law firm, Fitche & Co has arrested two of his vessels.
The British charity published the testimony of two remaining crewmembers of the vessel MV Tamim Aldar is reproduced below in the seafarer’s own words.
My vessel M.V. Tamim Aldar,
We 2 only remain onboard who complaint regarding abandonment my self vikash mishra seo and chief engineer arsu lobo indian nationality. We do not bunker and provision and spare parts & drinking Water.
vessels is extremely dangerous situation.
Not under command ,main engine ,main generator is not operational vessel is fully loaded least to stbd side {3.5 degree} only emergency generator can be start for 20 minutes.
Port side free board is 2.5 meter but stbd side free board is 1 meter.
As I informed before if any how flooding will take place in engine room or ballast tank we will not be able to pump out.
And some unpleasant situation will occur . Which could be dangerous for ship as well as for our life too.
Kindly help us and bound company to give us our remaining pending salary and signoff . We are mentality and physically sick & weaker {31 month running onboard}.
My Chief engineer is 49 year old he have health issues.
Please do all the needful to send us home as soon as possible.
We will be thankful to you.
Please find the attachment of our life in tamim aldar our life is now in your hand.
Waiting for your kind reply.
Kind regards M.v tamim aldar
Vikash Mishra.
Human Rights at Sea gave an insight of the abandonment of 40 seafarers in the UAE in December 2018. The conditions remain harsh, and the seafarers suffer from physical and mental health issues.
In light of the seafarers’ abandonment, Elizabeth Mavropoulou, Charity Administrator & Programme Manager at HRAS has already commented in the existent situation, supporting that by making the incident public, HRAS has been contacted by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) while ITF, the ILO and IMO, who seem interested in this issue.
Also, a petition was launched in favour of them, by the British human rights charity ‘Justice Upheld’.
