8 sailors stranded on ship without wages
UAE warns owner that shipping activities will be banned by Thursday if he does not resolve issue
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Eight Indian sailors stranded without wages for nine months aboard the vessel MV Topman that entered Dubai waters in November 2017 have claimed that the owner of the Panama-flagged vessel has abandoned them.
The crew said they have been paid only one month’s salary since they reached Dubai waters. They also alleged that there is minimal supply of food and drinking water and they had been supplied food twice by Nautical Institute UAE.
They cannot leave the ship since they do not have UAE visas. “If any accident or medical emergency happens, we cannot even seek help. The ship’s MLC complaint certificate and all the firefighting appliances have expired,” a senior crew member said.
The Federal Transport Authority (FTA) of the UAE yesterday warned the Indian owner of the ship that the company’s activities will be banned in the UAE by Thursday if he does not provide a plan to sort out the sailors’ issues. An executive from the company’s representative office in Sharjah said the company would be able to pay pending wages only after selling the vessel. “We had given them an option to go home with one month’s salary, but they are not ready to do that,” he said.
Emails from the Panama Consulate in Dubai indicated that the mission was trying to assist the company to sell the ship and was ready to arrange tickets and visas for the sailors if they wished to fly home before receiving the full payment.