Concerns mount for abandoned Pakistani crew

CONCERN is mounting for four Pakistani crewmen who have been abandoned without wages or food on board a trawler anchored off a Cork port for over month.

They arrived in Kinsale on board the 35-foot vessel, Lucky Star, on March 16. But the skipper has since left the country and the vessel’s Greek owners are not responding to queries from local agents or port authorities. The vessel has since been detained over paperwork issues.

Speaking from the deck of the vessel last night, its chief officer, Azhar Iqbal, said the crewmen have not been paid for five months and are owed up to $26,000 (€19.97).

“It is a horrible life out here. We are like slaves here. We can’t go anywhere. We have fresh water for about two more days.

“We want to go home with our salaries. Everyone is very fed up and getting crazy here,” he said.

Food and supplies were shipped out to the men by concerned locals yesterday as diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation intensified.

Azad Ahmed, a Pakistani-born businessman who has been living in Bandon for almost 20 years, is trying to help the men.

“They are in trouble. They have just been abandoned in the middle of the sea,” he said. “One of the men is sick and needs medical attention. They need help and want to go home.”

Officials from the Pakistani Embassy also met the men yesterday. It is understood they are now trying to contact the ship’s owners, Athens-based Indamar Marine Company, but a spokesperson told the embassy it was not available for comment.

Mr Iqbal said his crew has no option but to wait for news from the embassy.

They have been stuck on board the Tanzania-flagged vessel since it arrived in Kinsale on March 16.

Local agent Henry Good Ltd was contacted by Indamar and told it was a supply vessel that had sailed from Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, on March 5 bound for Greece.

The firm was asked to arrange provisions and a crew change when the vessel arrived in Kinsale.

Henry Good Ltd is one of the country’s most respected shipping agents and said it is the first time in almost 30 years it was asked to handle a crew change of this kind.

However, Irish immigration refused to let a new crew on.

The vessel berthed in Kinsale to take on water between March 23 and 26 and fuel on April 1 and 2.

The vessel’s captain, named only as Mr G Ntavos, departed on April 6, flying Cork to London, and on to Athens.

Henry Good Ltd has been trying to contact the vessel’s owners since, but without success. It will hand responsibility for the situation to the port authorities today.

International Transportation Federation (ITF) official Ken Fleming, who has worked on several cases of abandoned seafarers, said his union will not be getting involved in this case.

He said the Pakistani embassy wrote to him asking that “appropriate measures are taken to look after the welfare of the crew members... with provisions of food and water supplies” while arrangements are made for “their repatriation to their home country”.

He criticised the embassy for its attitude to the crewmen in this case and said it should be looking after its own nationals.

“I would describe the attitude of the embassy as ‘appalling’,” he said.