It is surprisingly common for ships and their crews to be stranded and sometimes abandoned due to disappearing owners, pay disputes, and management troubles. It could be inferred in the following case.
Aisha has been the custodian of the 4,000-tonne MV Aman, trapped onboard as a prolonged legal battle to sell the vessel and pay the crew plays out thousands of miles away
Other crew members were repatriated in September 2019, leaving him alone on a skeleton vessel of dirty, empty cupboards and filthy living quarters. “It’s a solitary prison,” Aman said.
Representatives from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), and boarded the ship to check on the crew’s wellbeing.
It is ensured that the 26-person Indian crew is protected as a legal battle rages around the ship. The ship is now at anchor in the Great Bitter Lake after it was dislodged from the banks of the Suez Canal.
The UK P&I Club, a maritime insurance company that represents the owners of the Panamanian-flagged ship, said: “The SCA has not provided a detailed justification for this extraordinarily large claim, which includes a $300m claim for a ‘salvage bonus’ and a $300m claim for ‘loss of reputation’ ”.
It said the claim that the incident had damaged the SCA’s reputation was disputed. “We are also disappointed at comments by the SCA that the ship will be held in Egypt until compensation is paid, and that her crew will be unable to leave the vessel during this time.”
The operator BSM said the crew “remain in good health and good spirits” and the company’s “primary goal is a swift resolution to this matter that will allow the vessel and crew to depart the Suez canal”.
Abdulgani Y Serang, the head of the NUSI, which represents the crew, said they were “relaxed but apprehensive”. He said recent Egyptian court findings that led to the detention of the ship had made no comment on the seafarers’ professionalism, so he was hoping they would remain untouched by the crisis swirling around them.
“These are professionals who had nothing to do with this incident and should not be held to ransom,” he said. “Let the negotiations go wherever they need to go … the situation shouldn’t arise that our seafarers there in Egypt are on the receiving end of something. They should not feel any heat at all from this whole incident.”
Serang hopes that at least three of the crew whose contracts are due to expire will soon be repatriated in exchange for a new team of seafarers flown in to take their place. “We’re not interested in the financial negotiations and their outcome, our only interest is the human element, the seafarers onboard – we need to take care of their mental health and wellbeing,” he said.
Injustice to Aisha
In the Gulf of Suez, Aisha waits for his freedom. “Onboard, there is no routine. Sometimes I walk round and round on the deck,” he said. “I try to do whatever I can to distract myself from this nightmare.”
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Source: The Guardian
