Following unpaid wages and salaries to seafarers in Senegal, four angry Seafarers with support of\u00a0 International Transport Workers\u2019 Federation (ITF), have seized a ship over unpaid salaries
\nThe seized ship, Onda, though abandoned, has its crew on board, even as its engine was not functional.
\nIt also does not have electricity for cookers, refrigeration of food, or to power the warning lights needed at night to avoid collision with passing vessels.
\nSeafarers, with the support of the ITF seized a cargo ship off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, after months without payment and facing dangers of physical integrity.
\nA statement issued by ITF said the four crew of the general cargo ship, Onda, had been battling to have the engine of their vessel repaired, while the port authorities have ignored their requests for help for more than a year.
\nThe statement reads: \u201cActing on behalf of the crew, the ITF went to a Senegalese court to have the ship legally seized, as its ongoing position near a busy shipping lane left the crew and others vulnerable to a potential collision at night, with no engine to power the vessel\u2019s warning lights.
\n\u201cThe vessel remains seized until the owners pay the more than US$$84,000 owed in wages to the beleaguered crew.
\n\u201cSeizing the vessel means the ship cannot be used by its owner until the debts are settled,\u201d the statement said.
\nThe ITF said it is also claiming costs from the owners \u201cas they left the ship at anchor for lengthy periods without providing adequate provisions for the crew, as a shipowner is obliged to under the Maritime Labour Convention and most seafarer contracts\u201d.
\nThe ITF claims it has stepped in on several occasions to ensure the seafarers did not starve.
\nAccording to ITF, late in January, the owner\u2019s attorneys made a push, increasing their offer to get the Onda operating.
\nThey offered the Master of the vessel US$33,000 in order to get the ship going, well short of the US$55,000 owed to him. With his consent, the ITF rejected this offer on behalf of the captain.
\n\u201cThe ITF has seized the ship and is demanding that the owners pay the crew what they are owed, together with expenses the ITF has incurred, and the cost of getting the seafarers home.
\n\u201cIf they don\u2019t respond, the next stage will be to go back to court to have the ship auctioned off to recoup this money,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Following unpaid wages and salaries to seafarers in Senegal, four angry Seafarers with support of\u00a0 International Transport Workers\u2019 Federation (ITF), have seized a ship over unpaid salaries The seized ship, Onda, though abandoned, has its crew on board, even as its engine was not functional. It also does not have electricity for cookers, refrigeration of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-maritime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313131,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313124\/revisions\/313131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}