Ships Abandoned at UAE Ports

The Khaleej Times reported that at least two ships are currently being abandoned at UAE ports, with some 16 seamen of Asian and Middle Eastern origin being left at the mercy of charitable organizations like the Mission to Seafarers. One tugboat with four crew members and a small tanker vessel with 12 seamen are currently being abandoned by their owners at Hamriyah in Dubai and Hamriyah Port in Sharjah respectively. The four-member crew, all Indians, of the tugboat, which is owned by an Iraqi, has not been paid for four months now, and is now relying on the mission. The tug has been sold to another Iraqi. The other ship, a feeder diesel smuggling vessel, has 12 crew members, including Syrians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, who have also not been paid by the owner for several months now. The ship used to smuggle diesel from Iraq, carry it to Iran to avoid sailing into international waters and then come to the Gulf, from where its load used to be discharged onto bigger ships. At any given time, there are at least 100 ships in this area, whose crew has not been paid for months. To be able to address more issues of this kind, The Mission to Seafarers in Dubai, which is part of the international organization that cares for seafarers regardless of race or religion in over 300 ports around the world, launched its charitable appeal ‘The Angel Appeal.’ The aim of the project is to raise over $1 million before the end of this year to build and equip a boat appropriately named ‘Angel’ to support some of the estimated 140,000 seafarers using the East Coast Anchorages of the UAE each year. (Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com)