Twenty crew members of the Tanzanian registered cargo ship were rescued on Sunday after the ship sank in Omani territorial waters. Photo: Fayiz Al Junaibi
The rescued crew members of the ship that sank off the Oman coast have alleged that they were not paid their salary for months.
What happened?
On September 2, 20 crew members were rescued from a Tanzanian flagged vessel that was sinking off the Oman coast by a good Samaritan vessel.
Claims to be settled:
The owner of the vessel has given assurance that the crew will be paid their salaries and repatriated to their respective countries.
A spokesman told, “The company will clear their dues after repatriation through their agents or directly to them. Of course they will be paid all their dues. We will settle everyone’s dues after their repatriation, and if we get any insurance claim, we will also compensate them, but they will not get any money in Oman”. When asked who will bear their repatriation costs, the company representative said, “We will bear all their repatriation cost”.
Belongings lost at Sea:
The ship was carrying building material and was heading to Eritrea.
Wajeeh Ullah, Chief Officer of the ship claimed that he hasn’t been paid for the last 45 days. “We have no shoes, no clothes and no money as we had to flee from the ship when the water levels started increasing”.
Crew seek help of their respective embassies:
The crew members have contacted their respective embassy to provide assistance and they embassies have given assurance to help them.
Ship developed leak due to bad weather:
The vessel had left Hamriya port and was proceeding towards the Fujairah port as the ship needed some repair work. The vessel came to Muscat where the crew members were supposed to get paid but they were told that payment will be provided once they reach Eritrea in Africa. When the ship reached Al-Labki, the ship was caught in the bad weather and started taking on water.
The crew said, “We informed the company and a marine engineer based in Salalah, Mohammed Sayeed Aijaz, who came with a pump and asked us to pump out water. When the water level started increasing, Aijaz again came with two fishing boats and rescued us. We managed to run from the ship with only our passports”.
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Source: Times Of Oman
