Stranded crew waiting for release

01 October 2009

The crew members who had recently been rescued from M V Asian Forest which sunk in the sea near Someshwara find themselves stranded as they could neither return to their native country nor continue to stay here. The 18 member crew who has been kept cooped up in a lodge in Mangalore at present are under the custody of the district administration.

The crew which has already gone through a harrowing experience is further put to a series of inconvenience due to absence of any outdoor entertainment coupled with language problems. As of now the decision to permait their return journey to their native country is kept in abeyance by the district administration pending completion of the salvage operations and pumping out the fuel from the ship. The district administration has to meet the day to day expenses of this crew.

The Chinese embassy had written to the Union Government that out of the 18 persons on the ship, 10 were the crew members of the ship and the remaining persons were coolies. Therefore, it has requested the government to release the ten member crew currently lodged in Mangalore. However the district administration does not appear to give in to any such pressures and had made it clear to the concerned that there was no question of releasing any of the crew members unless the ship has been salvaged.

source the canara times