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Beached at Gadani 20.08.21 Plot 66

Captain finally allowed to return home due to ITF intervention

The Captain of the arrested 'Kenan Mete', who was stuck in Al Adabiyah for more than a year as a court-appointed legal guardian of the vessel, was finally heading home. The International Transport Federation Workers' said he was now returning to Turkey after months of campaigning for his release. The vessel was seized by the Egyptian authorities after its owner refused to pay the ship's crew and abandoned the vessel. Under an Egyptian law, the Captain was appointed as ship's legal guardian and was blocked from the leaving the vessel. Although the ship's insurer provided the Captain and his crew with food, water and basic amenities, they were essentially left stranded, as the ship was unsuccessfully put up for auction. The ITF reported that it helped secure the release and repatriation of almost all the crew between October 2020 and January 2021, along with four months' pay. But the release of the Captain proved to be more difficult. It was only when ITF took up his cause and organized a replacement as judicial guard, after months of campaigning for his release, that the Captain was allowed to go home.

Captain of abandoned ship held in Adabiya

On Feb 11, 2021, the emergency generator on board the 'Kenan Mete' failed, leaving no electricity, water or food on board. The Turkish captain Vehbi Kara was the last man aboard the bulk carrier in the port of Adabiya in the Suez Canal. The ship has been idle since the end of June 2020, when the owner Blodwen Marina abandoned the vessel and its crew. There were a total of 25 crew members from Georgia, India, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the Ukraine on board. A dispute emerged between the Istanbul-based shipowner and the crew over Blodwen Marina’s failure to pay wages. The dispute initially prevented the crew from leaving with their outstanding wages. In September, an intervention from the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) led to all of them being paid four months’ wages by the ship’s insurance provider, a P&I club. The wage payments were a welcomed reprieve for the crew, because two of the seafarers had not been paid for two months. ITF investigations uncovered that many more had not received wages for the 12 months prior to the vessel arriving in port. Some had even gone as long as 18 months without pay. The ITF reported the crew abandoned to the International Labour Organization in October 2020. With no support from the shipowner, the ITF began to push for crew to be allowed to disembark. But getting the crew off thevessel proved a mission filled with difficulties. BITF Arab World and Iran Network Coordinator, Mohamed Arrachedi worked with the ITF Contact for Egypt, Alsayed Alchazli on the seafarers’ case and played a central role in assisting the distressed seafarers by liaising with the different Egyptian authorities, administrations and legal services on their behalf. After hundreds of hours of work over more than two months, the seafarers’ claims for outstanding wages from the sale of the ship were able to be submitted to the Egyptian courts overseeing the sale. Getting the ITF’s legal assistance to the crew proved difficult. In December, the ILO/IMO ‘Seafarer Crisis Action Team’ wrote to the Egyptian authorities stressing the port state obligation to ensure the crew was repatriated according to the Maritime Labor Convention. To make matters worse, on Dec 14 one of the men tested positive to COVID-19, and the ship and its crew were put under a strict quarantine. Until January 2021, the ITF was able to see almost all of the crew leave the vessel and return to their families except the Captain Kara who was kept on board against his will. When the Egyptian authorities seized the vessel on Jan 15, 2021, the ship had over USD $528,467 indebted to creditors. The court nominated Captain Kara as the judicial guard until the vessel could be sold at auction – with proceeds used to settle some or all of the ship’s debts. In pleas to the authorities, the Captain claimed he was being tortured by being detained on the unsafe ship. He was not even allowed to walk on the pier. The Egyptian authorities said Captain Kara had to stay until the ship’s agent assigned another master via the courts. On Feb 14 the captain was permitted to disembark the ship. This was thanks to ITF pushing, together with the support of the IMO, the Turkish embassy in Cairo and the ship’s P&I club. He was allowed to go to a nearby hotel, but not without conditions. Captain Kara has now been trapped at the Red Sea Hotel and has spent another 23 days and nights trapped in the same hotel room. The Egyptian authorities still refused to let him leave due to his condition as ‘Legal Guard’ of the ship. The federation was still seeking steps that would allow the captain to be repatriated. Maritime authorities in Egypt stated that they did not object to the Captain’ repatriation and that this was an issue of the court’s making. The current situation condemned Captain Kara to remain in Egypt, with no income, unpaid and awaiting until the sale of the ship.