M.V SMURF

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Crew on abandoned ship left for themselves

The crew of the ''Eide Trader' headed by the Ukrainian captain Yuri Zayarny, was left to fend for themselves in Sharjah On board were five crew members, including the, as well as a second mechanic, boatswain and minders. Their contracts have already ended and their working papers are overdue. Four seafarers started working on this vessel in November 2019. The fifth has been on the ship for the longest time (since July 2019) and he could not withstand such harsh conditions. He died of a heart attack and on Dec 16, 2020, he was taken to a local hospital for surgery. In violation of the terms of the seafarers' labor contracts, their employer, the Eide Marine Logistics AS (Norway), has not paid wages since November 2019. Everything necessary for the life of five crew members is provided by P&I club Gard AS (Norway) and with their help, on Oct 8, 2020, nine crew members were repatriated. The minimum number of the crew remained on board. On Dec 1, 2020, the Eide Marine Logistics AS filed for bankruptcy, and the Mortgagee Bank Tysness Sparebank was appointed as the bankruptcy trustee. Representatives of the latter refused to fulfill their obligations to change the crew and stated that the Mortgagee Bank was not interested in either the vessel or the further fate of its remaining crew. According to the captain, the whole team is morally exhausted, families suffer from the lack of the sailors and the money they earned, there is no prospect of getting at least a part of what they earned in more than a year, and there is no information on how to get home. They cannot leave the ship, their documents are already expired, and any of their movements in a foreign country will be considered a violation of the law and accordingly punished.