DUBAI (Reuters) – The five crew members of the oil tanker MT Iba have been fighting at sea for almost four years, and are still unable to set foot on dry land.
The men are blue-eyed and with tattered clothes and are exhausted from a ordeal that kept them from their families and on board the 5,000-ton vessel long after the owner left it in the Gulf.
What started as an ordinary seafaring job turned into what the men call a nightmare, when the owner of the tanker, Alco Shipping, got into financial trouble and stopped paying their salaries 32 months ago.
The crew had to take care of themselves and rely on donations from charities that contacted them for food and hygiene.
The tanker ran aground at the end of January in Umm Al Quwain, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, after rough seas cut off both its anchors and pushed ashore.
Life on board the ship was difficult, said Indian engineer Vinay Kumar.
“We saw hell during this voyage,” Kumar told Reuters during a recent visit aboard the wrecked ship. “We are like slaves … We beg for food.”
Alco Shipping did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Mission to Seafarers, a charity that provides first aid and support to sailors, has been providing the ship’s abandoned regular regular food assistance since the first time and looks after the sailors’ well-being.
The crew owes a total of about $ 230,000, said regional director of the charity Andy Bowerman, who helps mediate between the sailors and Alco Shipping.
Bowerman said the company has just offered to settle $ 150,000 with the sailors, although it is not clear whether the crew will accept the lower amount.
Bowerman said that if they did not accept the offer, they would remain on board until a resolution was reached, as the vessel was the only leverage against the company.
Maritime laws also mean that if they leave the ship, they can be detained and held accountable.
For Nay Win, an engineer from Myanmar, there is another complication: his passport, still owned by the company, expired while he was at sea. And with the recent military coup at home, he’s not sure how to get a new one.
“How will you feel for 43 months?” said Pakistani engineer Riasat Ali. “It’s like we’m staying in jail – they do not pay and do not send us home.”
(Reporting by Jacob Greaves; Additional Reporting by Tarek Fahmy; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Mike Collett-White)