“Lose hope with every day that goes by”: agony of the ships “that are left at sea | workers' rights

WHen Vihaan* set off from his house in Tamil Nadu, southern India, to work on a ship that crosses the Bay of Bengal into the neighboring Bangladesh. He told his family that he would be gone for a few months. After the Marine engineer delivered his Stone charge to Bangladesh's Kutubdia Island, he should go home in March 2024 to strain the port of Thoothukudi, India.

This month, the rust tractor, the Navimar 3 operated by the Middle East (MEM), was arrested by the authorities in Bangladesh due to the fees unpaid. Vihaan has become a virtual prison on board for almost a year, he said, forced to work without paying to protect the ship in the middle of strong currents in which it is anchored in the bay in the cyclone drives. His passport and certification documents are held by a local agent for the company based in Dubai. Since he has no way to get home, no visa for disembarkation and without supplies, he has to rely on food and water from charity organizations and unions.

Vihaan, who has 25 years of experience in the industry, said that he had “nothing but empty promise” from the Dubai company that he should pay and go. Screenshots of increasingly desperate messages between the engineer and the company confirm this. He longs for his wife and 14-year-old daughter, but says that he “loses hope with every day that passes”. Since his task, his family, who depends on his wages, has made debt that swallow the 20 years of savings and risk his daughter's dreams to become a military doctor. His wife had to postpone the treatment of the hospital.

When the Guardian spoke to Vihaan at the beginning of this month, he cough and said he felt weak and feverish. There is no medicine on board, he says. He continues to work, because despite everything, he has to protect the crew and the ship, he says. The Maritime Labor Convention defines “task” as two months without contractual wages, maintenance and support or return costs.

Vihaan's case is anything but isolated. Thousands of seafarers, the backbone of global shipping trade, remain in what the International Transport Association (ITF) describes as “cancer” in the industry. The cases rose by 135%, from 132 ships in the previous year 2023 to 312 in the previous year, which, according to a joint database for international work organization (ILO)/International Maritime Organization (IMO), concerns more than 3,000 seafarers.

With 108, the region in the Middle East had the most abandoned ships, while the port state with the highest number are the United Arab Emirates. 42 abandoned ships in their waters in 2024. The second highest was Turkey with 25 UEA companies are also responsible for the largest share of all tasks. The Federal Transport Authority in the VAE was addressed for a comment, but did not answer.

Sailors in the ILO/IMO database were often left with little or without food and dirty drinking water, while the wages that were owed to $ 20 million (16 million GBP) were no longer paid in 2024, of which ITF has so far recovered 10.4 million US dollars. For a desperate crew member, it became so bad that after a failed attempt to take your life, you were taken to the hospital, says ITF.

These seafarers are in a Catch-22: Without returning home, they remain on board in deteriorating conditions and hope that employers who owe them to wages will pay. As soon as you leave the ship, the chances that you will receive unpaid wages.

Most abandoned ships sail under a “flag of convenience” such as Panama or Palau, says ITF. This system, to enable a shipowner, to register a ship in a country other than its own with often less strict work laws, makes it difficult to take legal steps against shipowners.

Another disturbing aspect of the industry is the increasing danger to seafarers who unintentionally deal with conflicts. This was emphasized in November 2023 when the carpenter of the cargo ship, the Bahamas-Flyer Galaxy leader, was taken hostage at the start of an attack campaign in the attack campaign by Yemens Houthis associated with the war in the Gaza. They were published last month after the ceasefire.

And in July in July, 16 seafarers were in a conflict zone on board the Captain Tarek freight ship during the Israeli air raids at the port of Hodeidah in Yemen, which reported three people and wounded in 87.

Satya Rahul, the second officer on the Tarek from Delhi, says that he feared for his life and the life of the crew: “I was too afraid. My life was in danger during the strike. I did my watch tasks … because [at sea] We cannot leave responsibility to others. If something goes wrong, everything can happen with the life of the entire crew. “

The 31 -year -old Rahul said that he was forced to work unpaid for seven months. The Tarek crew, eight Indians and eight Syrians, had to live from some of the pasta or a rice and one liter of water a day between them, he claims. They have no electricity and no fuel, he says. Rahul is now at home, together with five of the other Indian seafarers and the eight Syrians who were looking for help with the ITF.

Steve Trowsdale, the head of the ITF inspection process, says: “The seafarer has become more dangerous in recent years. “” Sandra Bernal, the coordinator of the Asia Pacific region at ITF, who dealt with Vihaan's case, says that ITF has now attributed two separate crews of the Palau-Flagged Navimar. A third crew from Indonesia rose this month, Vihaan claims.

MEM operates tugs like the Navimar 3 via a “bareboat” gorter with which it can use ships that belong from a third party. Ad Ports Group, a state organization in Abu Dhabi, is the economic owner of Navimar 3 through subsidiaries. The economic owner is the one who exerts effective control over the ship, although he can rent it through subsidiaries. According to his accounts, ad -ports made VAE Dirham (300 million GBP) in 2023.

Last month, Vihaan received his first good news for a year after the ITF was printed – he received half of the wages owed to him. According to Bernal, he still owes $ 27,000 (21,000 pounds).

Mohamed Arrachedi, ITFS flag of convenience coordinator in the Arab world and Iran, has dealt with many stressful cases. “We cannot normalize the abandonment,” he says. “It is immoral, inhuman. It's like modern slavery. “

During the time he was interviewed for this piece, Vihaan has moved on the coast, but is still waiting for his unpaid wages. Middle East Marine was addressed for a comment. When contacting contact, advertising ports suggested that the information from the Guardian was out of date, but since then it has not been possible to contact them. The Guardian also tried extensive effort to identify the owners of the captain Tarek, but without success.

* The name has been changed. Seaper fears reprisals and black list of employers because they speak out of the pronouncement

• This article was changed on February 26, 2025 to correctly refer to the joint database IAO/IMO to the task of seafarers. An earlier version was referred to as the “common ITF/IAO database”. While an important contribution is available, the database is hosted by the IAO and managed together with the IMO.