LILIBET

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Remaining crew members in limbo on abandoned ship

Three sailors, two of Greek nationality and another of Egyptian origin, were remain aboard the 'Lilibet' in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife without receiving their respective salaries from the ship owner which does not even provide them with food or drink. To the rest of the sailors who have been abandoning the ship little by little, the shipping company has supposedly paid their salary debt and they have left the island, some were repatriated. There is no captain on the ship. On Dec 11, an ambulance was summoned to the Los Llanos dock to provide health care to one of the men, due to his poor state of health, thanks to the mediation of the humanitarian NGO Stella Maris, which is based in Tenerife. The ship had arrived at the port in January after being intercepted under the name 'Blume' by the customs vessel 'Fulmar' about 80 miles east of the Archipelago with 4,500 kilos of cocaine on board. After months, supposedly a shipowner of Greek origin, wanted to resume the cargo operations and began taking steps to achieve this. The Criminal Chamber of the National Court paralyzed a court's decision so that the 'Blume' could be seized, confiscated or intervened. The owner company claimed that it was not being investigated for the anti-drug operation and that it had nothing to do with it, so it made no sense for the vessel to remain detained in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife until the process was concluded. In August the crew was hired and the ship was renamed 'Lilibet'.