41 Indian sailors stranded in ‘leaking ships’, send SOS from UAE to be rescued

Team Udayavani, Jan 6, 2017, 12:25 PM IST

New Delhi: As many as 41 Indian sailors employed in four merchant ships in UAE’s Ajman anchorage have sent out SOS messages seeking help to be rescued.

As per a report, the sailors have sent out an SOS saying that out of the four vessels, two were leaking and their owner who reportedly has seized their passports was untraceable.

The sailors hailing from Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarkhand, Punjab, Harayana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu, Karnataka and Kerala have sent out tweets to PM Narendra Modi, external affairs ministers Sushma Swaraj and junior minister V K Singh, International organisations like Sailors’ Society and Seafarers UK asking for their help.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh has asked the sailors to approach the Consulate General of India in Dubai.

Some of the sailors have mentioned that they have not been paid for nearly 15 months and were surviving on dal and rice whilst facing shortage of water. Furthermore they say that when the owner was called to inform about the holes in the vessels he put them off by asking them to call “only when the ship begins sinking or someone dies.

Sushma Swaraj on Friday has assured that she will look into the incident and resolve the same.