The Indian crew aboard Liberia-flagged motor tanker ‘A Whale’, stranded for the last five months off the Egyptian port of Suez, might have to wait for long to get their wages.
Even after repeated requests by the crew to Nos Ship Management of Singapore, the company which manages the vessel, the ship management has not paid their wages for the last six months.
The company has already filed bankruptcy before a Texas court following which the court ruled that banks must let the company pay for the costs of crewing.
Following this, ship owner Nobu Su reportedly said the company would soon pay the ‘A Whale’ crew, who are stranded for months. However more than a week after the court order, the crew have not been paid their wages, except for the January salary, said the crew members. “We have not been paid the pending wages other than the January salary.
We were planning to leave. But they (the company) don’t have money to even repatriate us. We are at the anchorage here, and cannot do anything,” Khan Jubair of Bangladesh, Captain of ‘A Whale’ told Express over the phone from Cairo. He said the Indian authorities, including officials from the Embassy, had come to meet the crew at the vessel.
“They offered to help us. They would put pressure on the company to pay the wages. Some of the crew members, including me, were planning to leave the vessel. We hope the company would soon be able to settle the outstanding amount as the court has ordered to do so,” he said.
‘A Whale’ has been stranded off the Suez port with a 23-member crew, including 21 Indians.