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Two ships abandoned at ports in the UAE

The Reverend Stephen Miller, Seafarers Welfare Officer, told Khaleej Times yesterday that 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, have not been paid for four months now, and are 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.

The Reverend said that at any given time, there are at least 100 ships in this area, whose crew has not been paid for months, adding that the mission takes care of such people, trying to help them with money and some legal assistance. To be able to address more issues of this kind, The Mission to Seafarers in Dubai, which is part of the international organisation that cares for seafarers regardless of race or religion in over 300 ports around the world, yesterday 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.

The customised boat, to be built by Albwardy Marine in Al Jadaf, Dubai, will provide an Internet café, a library with both educational and fictional DVDs and books, a medical clinic with a fully trained paramedic, access to telecommunications, and pastoral and spiritual support with a dedicated welfare officer.

The order for the ‘Angel’ was placed on Tuesday and the estimated time to build the craft is approximately eight to 10 months. The service will operate every week for 72 hours at a time, by sailing out to the ships using the East Coast Anchorage, allowing seafarers to step off their ships for a period of rest and relaxation. “With 99 per cent of all UAE imports arriving by sea, we all have a vested interest in ensuring the welfare of seafarers. The ‘Angel’ will offer many seafarers support and help who are unable to come ashore.

Far too many seafarers on board ships anchored off the East Coast do not get the opportunity to come ashore. Many of these vessels can be up to 18 miles out and it is too costly for the seafarers or their companies to consider shore-leave,” Reverend Miller said. “To illustrate the scale of the problem, the East Coast is the second largest bunker anchorage in the world with 100 to 150 ships anchored off the shore at any given time. As many as 2,000 seafarers were unable to communicate with family and friends at home for weeks, sometimes months, leading to isolation and loneliness,” he added.

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