ITF media release: Seafarers finally return home after 17 months in Ajman, UAE

 

 

Andy Khan-Gordon

Campaigns Communicator

The International Transport Workers' Federation

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7940 9282 | Mob: +44 (0) 7711 356 964

 

From: "clientreleases@gorkana.com" <clientreleases@gorkana.com>
Date: Friday, 26 January 2018 at 16:13
To: Andy <Khan-Gordon_Andy@itf.org.uk>
Subject: TEST: ITF media release: Seafarers finally return home after 17 months in Ajman, UAE

 

ITF_Agean_Princess_crew2.jpg
ITF_Agean_Princess_crew1.jpg
 
 

Seafarers finally return home after 17 months in Ajman, UAE

26 January 2018

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is pleased to announce that the eleven crew of the Panamanian flagged 'Agean Princess' have finally been able to return home to India and Myanmar, after a dispute between their ships operator and owner saw them held in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, for 17 months. However, the crew are still owed hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid wages.

ITF inspector, Mohamed Arrachedi, has been helping the crew since they were abandoned in June 2016: "This has been a difficult case, and in the end we were helped to conclude it by UAE Federal Transport Authority [FTA].

"The ITF and the FTA have been working closely to end abandonment in UAE waters, and these seafarers have seen the benefit of this. As the UAE moves towards fully complying with the Maritime Labour Convention all seafarers will enjoy the greater protection they deserve when working there.

"In this case we also had the cooperation of the flag state of the vessel - Panama - that helped to resolve the issue.

"But this is not the end of this sad story, the seafarers are owed wages going back to 2015, totalling over USD 916,000. There is never an excuse for seafarers to be abandoned like this, it is a scourge that has to stop, and it has to stop now".

See more about the work of the ITF and the UAE FTA here: https://goo.gl/xZboEt

ENDS

For more information contact

Mohamed Arrachedi
ITF Arab World network coordination
+34 629 419 007
arrachedi_mohamed@itf.org.uk

Photos of the crew are attached. Two are from Myanmar, nine are from India.

 

This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and then delete it immediately. You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose its contents to any other person. Any views or opinions expressed within the email are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of the ITF or the Seafarers' Trust.